Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Venus

  “A voyage to Venus involves acid clouds, searing heat and intense pressure. The reward”, writes Peter Bond,” may be the survival of our own planet”.

The Magelan spacecraft were to arrive at Venus on Friday after a 15-month cruise from Earth. For the next 243 Earth days a single day for the slowly rotating Venus – Magellan had to drop close to the surface, then soar away to transmit a stream of data back to Earth.

Despite visits from more than 20 spacecraft, including a dozen landings over the preceding 30 years, Venus had successfully withheld her innermost secrets from curious Earthlings. A formidable battery of defenses is arrayed against the best that modern technology could produce.

First is the thick blanket of pale yellow cloud, which envelops the entire planet. Before the advent of the Space Age, astronomers believed they were seeing clouds of water droplets comparable to those on Earth. However, spacecraft analysis soon made it clear that they were composed of a mixture of sulphur particles and concentrated sulphuric acid.

  Then beneath the layers of cloud is an atmosphere almost entirely of carbon dioxide. Surface pressure is 90 times that on Earth, equivalent to the pressure felt at a depth of 1 km in the ocean. This extremely dense atmosphere retains much of the heat from the Sun, creating a scorching environment with day and night temperatures of around 480C, hot enough for lead to run like liquid. Small wonder that the Soviet craft, which were the first to land on the barren rocky plains, were able to send back data for only a few hours before they succumbed to the hostile conditions. Scientists hoped that the highly sensitive radar on board Magellan would enable them to see Venus for the first time in as much detail as had been achieved for the other rocky planets.

  Why was this mission so important? Venus and Earth were born in the same part of the solar system, and have almost the same size, density and internal composition.

Many scientists believe that we can learn a lot about Earth from studying what went wrong with its planetary neighbour. Scientists generally agree that our world is threatened by catastrophic global warming due to the increase in gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Venus is a natural laboratory in which to examine theories related to the so-called greenhouse effect.

   Analysts disagree about the original composition of Earth and Venus. Some suggest that Venus started off much drier than our planet because it formed in a region of the solar nebula which was closer to the sun. Water vapour was unable to condense and be incorporated into the planet. Others believe that there was sufficient mixing within the cloud to distribute water fairly evenly between Venus, Earth and Mars.

  Whichever version is the closest to the truth, there is no doubt that both planets underwent intense bombardment from comets and asteroids in their evolution. Craters on the Moon, Mercury and Mars bear witness to this saturation shelling. These incoming visitors brought with them vast amounts of water, which was added to the original planetary inventory. Yet today Venus is bone dry while Earth is covered with vast oceans. How could it happen?

 

2. In the text find equivalents to the phrases:

- удерживать свои секреты от любопытных землян;

- чрезвычайно плотная атмосфера;

- удерживать тепло;

- преодолеть неблагоприятные условия;

- высокочувствительный радар;

- планеты подвергались интенсивным бомбардировкам;

- распределить воду весьма равномерно;

- быть свидетелем;

- извержение вулкана;

- концентрированная серная кислота;

- до тех пор, пока цикл не выйдет из-под контроля;

- выдвигать теорию.

 

3. Complete sentences 1-4 with one of the phrases a-g:

1) Scientists still find Venus difficult to explore ...

2) Scientists particularly wanted to know more about Venus ...

3) Scientists disagree about the early history of Venus ...

4) Scientists made errors about Venus until spacecraft got there ...

Because

a)  it actually looks rather like Earth.

b)  it has such a hostile environment.

c) they cannot be sure how wet it was originally.

d) it may have had a dense moist atmosphere.

e) because there is no water to remove the carbon dioxide.

f) because it may have experienced .something like global warming.

g) because they had been unable to land a craft there till Magellan spacecraft

 

WORD FORMATION

4. Translate the following words and phrases into Russian:

to saturate, saturated, saturation;

to scorch, scorching, scorching environment;

a threat, threaten, to be threatened; the world is threatened

to control, to get out of control; a cycle gets out of control;

a witness, to witness, to bear witness;

sense, highly sensitive device, the sensitivity of a device;

inevitable, inevitably, inevitably cause;

data, a stream of data, to transmit a stream of data back to Earth;

even , even number, evenly, to distribute evenly.

 

TALKING POINT

5. Discuss in pairs:

· difficulties scientists encountered with while trying to explore Venus.

·  the reason of the fact that we had known little about Venus before Magellan;

· the atmosphere on Venus;

· if we should study Venus;

· whether analysts agree about the original composition of Earth and Venus.

 

VOCABULARY STUDY

6. Complete the sentences using the words from the box:

a) radiation b) carbon dioxide c) concentration   d)eruptions e) atmosphere f) theory g)environments h) theories

 

 

There are two competing … (1) about the origin of Venus. The traditional view of scientists is that Venus was born relatively dry and with a massive  … (2). The planet was already so hot that no oceans were able to form, and a dense water vapour – carbon dioxide atmosphere was created.

A different … (3) has been put forward by other scientists. They believe that Venus was formed with plenty of water. So Venus and Earth may have enjoyed similar … (4) for several hundred million years.

Unfortunately for Venus, as its water molecules were broken down by solar

… (5) and lost into space, the oceans evaporated and disappeared. Without water there was no mechanism to remove the sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide which were continually being added to the atmosphere by volcanic … (6). For most of its life, Venus has been the barren inferno we see today.

Earth escaped this runaway greenhouse effect because it was cool enough to retain its oceans and because living organisms evolved which were able to remove the … (7). But modern human activity may be creating the nightmare which nature avoided. Greater … (8) of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels will inevitably cause a rise in global temperature. This, in turn, will lead to more evaporation from the oceans. Since water vapour itself is a very efficient greenhouse gas, the temperature will rise still further until the cycle gets out of control.

According to this scenario, Earth will rapidly become another Venus, a world totally alien to all forms of life. An unlikely chain of events?

 

7. Give a summary to the text in English:

2 июня 2003 на космодроме Байконур состоялся запуск АМС «Mars Express» Европейского космического агентства « Mars Express» – первая планетная миссия ЕКА, и вся Европа следила за ее полетом, затаив дыхание. Заметим, что «Mars Express» – была первой ласточкой. Вслед за ней на Марс прибыли американские марсоходы «Spirit» и «Opportunity». Два американских спутника – «Mars Global Surveyor» и «Odyssey« – уже находились на околомарсианских орбитах.     Конструкция межпланетной                    Исследования Марса занимают особое

станции Mars Express                       место в изучении Солнечной системы по следующим причинам. С точки зрения практического интереса к изучению Земли, исследования планет земной группы наиболее приоритетны. Марс наряду с Венерой во многом похож на Землю. Известно, что за время своей эволюции Марс и его атмосфера претерпели кардинальные изменения. Изучение этих изменений и причин, их вызвавших, имеет огромное значение для понимания прошлой и будущей эволюции Земли, а также исследования влияния антропогенной нагрузки на Землю и ее атмосферу.

На Марсе, возможно, имеются признаки биосферы, современной или реликтовой. Их обнаружение было бы очень важным для решения проблемы происхождения жизни. – Марс, несомненно, будет первой планетой, на которую отправятся космонавты. Но прежде чем посылать туда людей, необходимо тщательно изучить планету при помощи автоматов. Научная программа проекта «Mars Express» является очередным шагом в длительных исследованиях поверхности, атмосферы и климата Марса, проводимых с целью понять эволюцию планеты.

 

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