Venus, often a bright spot in our night sky, has captivated the human imagination for millennia. It's the second planet from the Sun and our closest planetary neighbor. Despite its proximity and comparable size to Earth, Venus presents a hostile environment with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, and atmospheric pressure 92 times that of Earth's.
Numerous missions have been sent to Venus, each unlocking new mysteries. The Soviet Union's Venera program was the first to land a spacecraft on Venus, providing the first images from the surface. More recently, NASA's Magellan mission mapped 98% of the Venusian surface using radar, revealing details about its volcanic plains, mountain ranges, and vast plateaus.