Word: venusians
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...against the 536° F. surface temperature, he might survive long enough to see both a sunset and a sunrise, which occur 59 earth days apart. When it was high in the sky, the sun would appear as a familiar disk-if it could be seen through the murky Venusian clouds. But as it set, according to Stanford University Engineer and Physicist Von R. Eshleman, the disk would gradually diffuse itself around the entire horizon as a glowing band for the remainder of the night; sunlight is so bent, or refracted, by the dense atmosphere that it circles around...
View from a Bowl. The high refractivity of the Venusian atmosphere could have other bizarre effects. Looking toward the horizon with a powerful enough telescope, the visitor might be able to see the back of his own head. And wherever he was, he would appear to be standing in the center of a depression, or bowl, looking up toward the horizon. Concluded Eshleman: "We can now say that Venus is not only hell, but a hellhole...
Atmosphere Profile. America's 540-Ib. Mariner 5 took a less direct approach, swinging to within 2,480 miles of the Venusian surface and then briefly disappearing behind the planet before heading toward a permanent orbit around the sun. As Mariner drew close, its instruments searched for a Venusian magnetic field and an accompanying radiation belt, and peered down into the upper atmosphere to determine its height and temperature profile. As the spacecraft swung behind Venvis, its radio signals passed through the Venusian atmosphere on their way to earth. By measuring the effect the intervening gases...
...Russians failed to clarify-and perhaps do not know-whether the signals stopped after the capsule reached the Venusian surface or while it was still descending, leaving open the possibility that even higher temperatures exist at lower altitudes. (Data recorded by Mariner 2 in 1962 and by radiotelescope observations have indicated Venusian surface temperatures as high as 800° F.) In any event, there seems little doubt that extreme heat finally silenced the capsule, either by damaging its parachute and causing it to plunge to destruction or simply by frying its electronic components...
...Soviet capsule also measured Venusian atmospheric pressures up to 15 times as great as the earth's and determined that the atmosphere consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide, which, scientists believe, is spewed out by volcanic activity. No trace of nitrogen (which constitutes 78% of the earth's atmosphere) and only 1.5% of oxygen and water vapor were detected. In readings made before Venus 4 entered the atmosphere, the Russians could find no evidence of a Venusian magnetic field and radiation belt...