How about the new Venus pics?

Did anyone get to view the new ESA pics of Venus?

Yes, I have seen them!

for those who may not have, here is the Venus Express page.
www.esa.int...

congratulations to ESA for a successful Orbital insertion.

There will be much more to see!

The swirling vortex of sulphuric acid at the pole that is being talked about, is it like a vapour - say like a tornado or are they talking about something like a vortex in an ocean or toilet?

Wow! I feel like a total , I never realized the ESA had sent a probe to Venus! I can't wait for it to get into a prime orbit and relay more information about our hot headed cousin of a planet. I've always had an interest in Venus, something along the lines of it being easier to cool it off than warm up Mars..

Interesting concept.

How would you propose they do that? Runaway Greenhouse Effect, Crushing pressure, Toxic Atmosphere and no magnetic field. Would be quite an undertaking but maybe possible. Any ideas?

Obviously these pics are faked! THERE ARE NO STARS IN THE BACKGROUND (HA!:lol. Seriously, they are great pics. I love pics of planets. Kudos to ESA.

Originally posted by TheHorseChestnut
Interesting concept.

How would you propose they do that? Runaway Greenhouse Effect, Crushing pressure, Toxic Atmosphere and no magnetic field. Would be quite an undertaking but maybe possible. Any ideas?

Well, the first three problems are already a step above mars-Venus is large enoguh to keep an atmosphere without losing it to solar winds, due to the lack of a magnetic field, which you mentioned. Like Mars, it would take an unimaginable amount of cooperation and investment of resources among us Earthlings (Wait, we could just ask Exxon..) to accomplish.

My thoughts on terraforming Venus and Mars can be looked at like a pot of soup. With Mars, you'd have to prep up your carrots, meats, broths, veggies, what have you, then toss it into the pot and bring it up to heat. With Venus, you have all the "fixings" you need (sequestered in one molecular form or another), except that some rival cook came and turned your temperature way up, and added some jalepones, habaneros, and scotch bonnets into the mix. The point is, the soup is messed up, but you can start to remedy it immediately by turning down the heat.

We can't just turn down the dial for Venus, but we can put a solar shade at the L1 Point of Venus to reduce the solar heating of the planet. Once things cool down, we can worry about fixing the 'sphere

400-500*C, a surface pressure 90 times that of earth, 300 Mph winds, and Sulfuric clouds that rain acid? Oh my! The atmosphere is admittedly very messed, and it is no small deed to reclaim it. The atmosphere is almost completely CO2, with traces of N2. In the upper atmosphere, Sulfuric "clouds" form, which is a layer of molecules "floating" on the denser ones beneath it. The greenhouse effect of the Co2 is so severe that, even though 75% of light is reflected back to space by the sulfuric clouds, the little sunlight that reaches the surface is trapped, creating a temperature hot enough to melt lead.

The density of the atmosphere itself yields one approach to terraforming. Human-breathable atmosphere is a lifting gas on Venus. So much so, that we could construct entire floating cities using bags of (our) air. at the height these cities would operate at, the pressure is ~1 bar (same as Earth), and the temperature is 0-50*C. These could serve as terraforming stations, growing vegetation or operating solar-powered plants that could process the Co2.

I'm not a big fan of that one. Bombarding the volatile Venusian atmosphere could with elemental hydrogen will consume the Co2, and create graphite (carbon) and water. This is called the Bosche reaction.The hydrogen could be mined from the gas giants, processed, and injected into the atmosphere. Creation of water would increase the reflectivity of the surface, lower sequester greenhouse gases (such as Co2 and Sulfur, water vapor in the atmosphere is itself a minor greenhouse gas), and the one remaining requirement would be the creation or introduction of a buffer gas, in this case nitrogen, into the atmosphere.

I don't know, it just seems easier to cool things down, than to heat them up. Admittedly, even if we healed the atmosphere, we'd still have to find a way to cope with the Venesian day and night, each of which is equal to about 120 Earth days and nights. Also, I'm not a planetary scientist, I'm a sailor. I'd love to take a cruise on Venus' oceans one day, though