Only four spacecraft have ever returned images from Venus’ surface. The world next door doesn’t make it easy, with searing heat and crushing pressure that quickly destroy any lander. In 1975 and 1982, four of the Soviet Union’s Venera probes captured our only images of Venus’ surface.

Dec 21, 2024 · Explore the extraordinary surface of Venus through rare photos captured by Venera 13 in 1982—the only glimpse humanity has of this mysterious planet.

Mar 7, 2023 · Very few images have been captured on the surface of Venus, Earth's second-closest neighbor. Why is the planet so hard to photograph?

Nov 24, 2023 · Images of the surface of Venus captured by Venera 9 and Venera 10 in 1975. ( Russian Space Agency ) You can see a significant difference in image quality between the two timeframes, even though they were separated by just a few years.

Feb 9, 2022 · NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has taken its first visible light images of the surface of Venus from space. Smothered in thick clouds, Venus’ surface is usually shrouded from sight.

The Venera images are the only ones we have from Venus’ surface, and they are priceless for planetary science. However, they are also low-resolution, noisy and incomplete due to data loss during transmission.

Surface photographs from the Soviet Venera 9 and 10 spacecraft. The Soviet Venera 9 and 10 spacecraft were launched on 8 and 14 June 1975, respectively, to do the unprecedented: place a lander on the surface of Venus and return images.

Mar 28, 2023 · However, we only have a handful of photos from the surface of Venus, and no new ones in over 40 years. This is not just a question of laziness from space agencies – Venus is not an easy...

Feb 12, 2025 · Left: Surface features, mostly elevation, seen in images captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe of the first visible light images of the surface of Venus which matches the features mapped by USGS Astrogeology Science Center image processing team in Flagstaff, Arizona. Photo credit: NASA/APL/NRL.

Jan 1, 2025 · While spacecraft are sending more and more images from Mars, high-quality images of the surface of Venus are very limited. In fact, the best pictures of the surface of Venus were taken by Soviet probes in the early 1980s.