In the 1960s, while the United States was constantly trying to touch the moon, the Cold War pushed the Soviet Union to touch Venus. Of the 28 probes they sent in succession, only 13 penetrated the atmosphere of Venus, and of those, Venera 13 was able to take the best color image.
They beat America and set many new records. Land on another planet for the first time, take pictures, record sound, etc. We have lots of pictures of Mars, we have Jupiter, we have Pluto, we have lots of nice clean pictures of other planets, moons, etc.
But due to the heavy atmosphere of Venus, we have not got a good picture so far. Venera 13 is the only image we have of Venus from its surface. In Venus’s 475 degree Celsius heat, 90 times Earth’s atmospheric pressure, and sulfuric acid rain, the probe was expected to survive for barely 45 minutes, but to everyone’s surprise, it lasted 127 minutes.
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