Word: planetful
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Venus is the closest planet to Earth, and yet it retains an aura of mystery. The thick layer of clouds hiding its surface has long frustrated efforts to take a close look at the Venusian landscape...
...probe keeps working, scientists will by next summer have mapped some % 90% of the planet. Magellan's radar detectors can pick up features as small as 120 meters (394 ft.) across, 10 times smaller than anything ever seen before. That should be enough to begin answering some important questions about the geology and atmosphere of the planet. Although nearly the same size as Earth, Venus has an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. These gases have created an atmospheric pressure at the surface 90 times that of Earth and led to a greenhouse effect that keeps the temperature...
...scientists. Without flowing liquids to cause erosion, the geological history of Venus has been preserved and can now be observed as if by time-lapse photography. For example, the outline of one mountain peak clearly shows how it was formed over time by three separate upward thrusts of the planet's surface. The atmosphere preserves the land in another way as well: the clouds are so dense that all but the largest incoming meteorites burn up before striking the surface. Earth has absorbed far more hits from meteorites, although much of the evidence has eroded away...
RACE TO SAVE THE PLANET...
After a balky start, the Magellan probe is mapping the cloud-shrouded planet by radar. Found so far: giant craters, major lava flows and a webwork of faults...