It’s time to for us to revisit Venus to uncover its many mysteries

The discovery of a possible sign of life on Venus highlights our ignorance of what is going on within its swirling clouds and on its furnace-like surface. It’s time to go there and find some answers, writes Peter Gao

By Peter Gao

Michelle D’Urbano

If Mars were the popular kid in school, Venus would be the weird nerd sitting in the corner, largely ignored.

Despite its image, Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the sun and the moon, its orbit taking it closer to Earth than any other planet in the solar system. It has nearly the same mass and size as Earth, but being closer to our star it experiences nearly twice as much heating from the sun.

However, instead of having a climate that is just a warmer version of Earth’s, Venus’s surface and atmosphere are …