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WILLIAM SHATNER: Volcanoes scar
the surface of a rocky planet...

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...hidden under thick clouds
of acid rain,

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while unimaginable heat
makes life impossible.

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Welcome to Venus.

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For centuries,
we've been fascinated

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by our nearest
planetary neighbor,

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even dreaming that it might be
an exotic paradise

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where humans could live one day.

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But in reality,
this glowing yellow orb

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is filled with poisonous clouds,

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and its temperature
is hot enough to melt lead.

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Will Venus remain
a strange, forbidden world?

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Or could we turn our neighbor
into another Earth?

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Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

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♪ ♪

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SHATNER:
When we gaze up at the stars,

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we see a vast array
of cosmic wonders,

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from majestic constellations
to sweeping comets...

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...and much more.

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But there is one
particular object

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that is perhaps more captivating
and mysterious than the rest.

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It's a bright diamond
that shines above the horizon

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which we call Venus.

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Venus is very bright in the sky.

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It's visible in the evening
or in the morning,

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depending on the time of year.

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And so, people are,
naturally, just very curious

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about what that bright thing is
out there,

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especially as we started
building accurate models

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of the solar system

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and realized that it was
the closest planet to us.

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PAUL BYRNE:
On paper, Earth and Venus

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are really similar.

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They're almost
the exact same size,

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they're made of
about the same materials,

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they're about the same age
and they orbit the same star.

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And so, for those reasons
and a host of others,

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that's often why we say
that Venus is Earth's twin.

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SHATNER:
Is Venus truly
Earth's twin planet?

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And if so, what secrets
lie within this luminous world

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that hangs in our sky?

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O'ROURKE:
Scientists are...

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more ignorant about Venus
than we are about

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almost any other world
in our solar system.

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For example, we know very little
about the interior of Venus.

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On Earth, we know
how big our core is

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because of seismology,

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but we've never measured
Venus quakes.

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we haven't put the seismometers
on the surface

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that we would need
to make detailed maps

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of the interior of Venus.

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And so, the planet is just,
all in all, a big mystery.

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SHATNER:
The mysteries of Venus

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have intrigued mankind
for thousands of years.

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Our ancient ancestors
could only speculate

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about the true nature
of the planet.

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Venus has been
incredibly important

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throughout human history.

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It is the third-brightest
object in the sky

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after the Sun and the Moon.

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And that has led humanity
to associate it

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with various deities
in different civilizations.

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For example, the name "Venus"

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was a Latin name that was
given to it by the Romans.

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The Romans gave the planet
the name "Venus"

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because it's so beautiful
in the sky, and therefore,

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they named it after their
goddess of beauty and love.

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And so, the brightness of Venus

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has given people a great deal
of fascination about it.

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SHATNER:
While ancient societies

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looked upon Venus
as a divine entity,

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during the Enlightenment,

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scientists were compelled
to unravel the mysteries

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of Earth's so-called twin.

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Astronomer Francesco Bianchini

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constructs several large
telescopes around the city,

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including one directly across
from the Colosseum

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that measures an unprecedented
72 feet in length.

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Bianchini's goal
is to give humanity

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its first up-close look
at Venus.

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GRAHAM LAU:
Francesco Bianchini was using

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remarkably long telescopes--
refracting telescopes--

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with large lenses for their time

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to make his observations
of Venus.

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He started seeing

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these large, dark regions
on the surface of Venus

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that he thought
were lakes or oceans of water.

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He even created
the first globes of Venus

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and mapped out these features.

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And for that period of time,

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that would make sense,
that there should be

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other worlds that,
just like the Earth,

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have oceans and lakes
and rivers.

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SHATNER:
Bianchini's drawings of Venus
amazed people throughout Europe.

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But some scientists
were skeptical of his claim

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that Venus had
large bodies of water.

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And as it turns out,
his critics were right.

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LAU:
We now know that Bianchini
wasn't looking at lakes.

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Indeed, he was looking at
the clouds of Venus.

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And so, when we look at Venus
with visible light,

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we see a world
obscured by clouds.

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But even though we now know
that what Bianchini thought

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he was seeing of Venus is wrong,

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his observations
using these large telescopes

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were a huge step
in astronomical observation.

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SHATNER:
For centuries, the dense clouds
that shroud Venus

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frustrated scientists
who wanted to get

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a better look at the planet.

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This impenetrable cloud cover
inspired wild theories

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about what lies on Venus.

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Before the Space Age,
people believed

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that Venus
is a sort of swamp world...

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...covered in
a planetwide jungle,

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where heroes
rode around on dinosaurs

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and fought amid
a lot of greenery.

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And science fiction writers
were convinced that Venus was

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a place where humans
could not only visit

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but perhaps thrive
and have great adventures.

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SHATNER:
By the middle
of the 20th century,

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curiosity about Venus
reached the point

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that scientists
realized it was time

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for humanity to finally glimpse
the surface of the planet.

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From the Baikonur Cosmodrome,

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the Soviet Union launches
its Venera 9 spacecraft.

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Four months later,
Venera pierces the thick clouds

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that have hidden Venus for ages,

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and a robotic probe
lands on the planet,

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allowing humans to see
the surface of Venus

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for the first time in history.

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ANNA GÜLCHER:
The pictures taken by Venera 9

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in 1975 on the surface of Venus,
they have this yellow gloom

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which is kind of an artifact

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from the composition
of the atmosphere.

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And if you look
at those pictures,

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you see these plains
of dark, smooth rocks

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that are fractured
and, in places, broken.

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It has something alien but also
something very familiar.

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JACOB HAQQ-MISRA:
These pictures are breathtaking.

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This is a planet that you cannot
see the surface of,

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even with a really
powerful telescope.

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And so, to see photographs
from Venus, it's just amazing.

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And these are still
some of the only pictures

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we have that were actually taken
from the surface of Venus.

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SHATNER:
The Venera 9 mission

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was a breakthrough
in space exploration.

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But curiously,
the robotic lander

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operated for a mere 53 minutes
before melting down.

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What scientists
didn't know at the time--

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but would quickly discover--
is that Venus,

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for lack of a better word,
is a hellhole.

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We now know
the surface conditions on Venus

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aren't anything
like they are on Earth.

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For example,
the surface temperature

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is almost
800 degrees Fahrenheit.

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That is the same temperature
your oven is on

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in its self-cleaning mode.

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The entire planet
has a global layer of clouds

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made of sulfuric acid,

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and those clouds
drop sulfuric acid rain.

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These conditions
are more than enough

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to kill you
in several ways simultaneously.

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And so, that's why
we often refer to Venus

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as Earth's evil twin.

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SHATNER:
With such hellish conditions,

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it's easy to see

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why Venus is now considered
Earth's evil twin.

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And yet, some scientists claim
that in the distant past,

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Venus was more identical
to Earth.

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So, what went wrong?

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One of the big questions we have
in planetary science right now

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is why did Venus change
to become the world it is today?

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What killed it
and could that mechanism

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one day affect Earth?

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Or perhaps,
why didn't it affect Earth?

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Was Venus unlucky,
or has Earth remained lucky?

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And the short answer
is we don't know.

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SHATNER:
How can we unravel the mystery

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of what happened to Venus?

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One theory suggests
that a clue lies

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in the fact that Venus
is covered with deadly volcanos.

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SHATNER:
The shuttle Atlantis launches

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from Kennedy Space Center,

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carrying the Magellan
space probe.

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Magellan's mission
is to orbit Venus,

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and take detailed images
of the entire surface.

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The photos reveal
an up-close look

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at a planet covered
in massive volcanoes.

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One of the really
surprising discoveries

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of NASA's Magellan radar mission

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was about 80% of the surface
is covered in volcanic plains.

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We know now that there's
more than 85,000 volcanoes

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that are about half a mile
in diameter or bigger.

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And so, Venus
is an extremely volcanic world.

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SHATNER:
The volcanoes on Venus
are fascinating,

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and some experts have wondered:

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could they be the reason
why the planet

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became Earth's evil,
and inhospitable, twin?

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Many people believe that Venus

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could have been
a nicer place in the past.

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And if Venus formed

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in the same way
that Earth formed,

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it's possible that
if we hopped in a time machine

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and went back in time
one or two billion years,

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that Venus had oceans
in the past,

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that it was a nice place to live
just like Earth is today.

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So, what fascinates me
about Venus is the prospect

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that it was a habitable world
like Earth,

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but then lost its habitability

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in some sort
of planetary catastrophe.

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How did Venus
get from a possible

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happy, habitable state
in its early history

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to this world that we see today?

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One hypothesis
that we've put forward

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is that it could be
large-scale volcanism.

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If you could have
these large volcanic events,

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then you have all this magma
kind of flowing out

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over millions of years.

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These kinds of events
can produce

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tremendous amounts of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere.

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Adding more carbon dioxide
makes the planet hotter.

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And you end up with
what modern Venus is today.

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SHATNER:
Did a cataclysmic
series of volcanic eruptions

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turn Venus into
the extremely harsh environment

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it is right now?

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And if so, is it possible

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that a similar catastrophe
could take place

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on Earth?

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It turns out that Earth
is an extremely volcanic world.

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Over the last
500 million years or so,

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there have been some gigantic
volcanic eruptions on Earth,

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and we know that some
of the largest mass extinctions

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recorded in the fossil record

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are tied
to those volcanic events.

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And so,
you can imagine a scenario

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where if you have
enough volcanoes

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erupting over
a short enough period of time,

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then possibly you start
talking about an Earth

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that becomes much more
like Venus than it is today.

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Right now, we don't have
enough information to say

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whether that's possible or not,

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but it sure has got
scientists thinking.

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SHATNER:
The possibility
that volcanic eruptions

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could make Earth more like Venus
is concerning.

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So, how can we learn

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whether this doomsday scenario
might happen?

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Scientists believe
that clues can be found

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by taking a new look
at some old data

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about the volcanoes on Venus.

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In 1978, NASA launches
the Pioneer Venus Orbiter

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00:13:40,208 --> 00:13:44,208
to perform observations
of Earth's neighboring planet.

251
00:13:44,375 --> 00:13:47,000
The probe sends
back massive amount of data

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00:13:47,208 --> 00:13:51,250
about both the atmosphere
and the surface of Venus.

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00:13:51,417 --> 00:13:53,750
Experts spend
the next several years

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00:13:53,917 --> 00:13:55,833
poring over this information

255
00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,333
including a planetary scientist
named Robert Herrick.

256
00:14:01,625 --> 00:14:04,542
I started my career
as a geoscientist

257
00:14:04,708 --> 00:14:07,000
in the oil industry in Texas

258
00:14:07,125 --> 00:14:11,833
and I got hooked up with a guy
who was working

259
00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:16,583
with Pioneer Venus
gravity and topography data.

260
00:14:16,750 --> 00:14:20,875
That was my entrance
into Venus science.

261
00:14:21,042 --> 00:14:25,792
It was the first time
where the data was released

262
00:14:25,917 --> 00:14:30,208
on this new invention
called the compact disc.

263
00:14:30,375 --> 00:14:36,042
And so we got sent
boxes and boxes of CDs,

264
00:14:36,208 --> 00:14:41,333
and you could load up one image
every 15 seconds or so.

265
00:14:41,542 --> 00:14:45,583
And so, it was really kind
of prohibitively difficult

266
00:14:45,750 --> 00:14:49,500
to do a large-scale scan
of the data,

267
00:14:49,708 --> 00:14:51,958
and so nobody did it.

268
00:14:52,958 --> 00:14:55,125
SHATNER:
In the early 1990s,

269
00:14:55,250 --> 00:14:57,333
Robert stopped analyzing
the information

270
00:14:57,542 --> 00:14:59,000
collected about Venus

271
00:14:59,125 --> 00:15:01,458
and, for decades,
this vast amount of data

272
00:15:01,625 --> 00:15:03,167
was largely forgotten.

273
00:15:03,375 --> 00:15:06,500
Until 2020,
when Robert was inspired

274
00:15:06,667 --> 00:15:10,208
to take a second look
using cutting-edge software.

275
00:15:10,375 --> 00:15:13,833
And this time,
he made a remarkable discovery

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00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,875
about a particular volcano
on Venus.

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00:15:18,042 --> 00:15:20,833
I had a list of, you know,

278
00:15:21,042 --> 00:15:23,750
the most likely places on Venus

279
00:15:23,958 --> 00:15:26,625
where there was
an active volcano.

280
00:15:26,833 --> 00:15:31,500
And I just sort of started
going through them one by one

281
00:15:31,708 --> 00:15:35,083
and flipping back and forth
between the images

282
00:15:35,250 --> 00:15:39,042
and looking for
something that changed.

283
00:15:39,208 --> 00:15:42,167
Where I hit paydirt
was near the summit

284
00:15:42,333 --> 00:15:46,667
of the very largest volcano
on Venus.

285
00:15:46,833 --> 00:15:50,000
I found a volcanic vent
that had appeared

286
00:15:50,167 --> 00:15:53,458
to change shape
over an eight-month period.

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00:15:55,708 --> 00:15:56,958
It was pretty exciting.

288
00:15:57,167 --> 00:15:59,625
I'm like,
I think this is important.

289
00:15:59,750 --> 00:16:02,083
It makes it clear that
at least parts of the planet

290
00:16:02,250 --> 00:16:04,333
are currently
volcanically active.

291
00:16:04,500 --> 00:16:08,625
SHATNER:
When Robert published
his results in 2023,

292
00:16:08,792 --> 00:16:10,167
scientists were shocked

293
00:16:10,250 --> 00:16:13,083
because they have long believed

294
00:16:13,250 --> 00:16:15,083
that Venus's
once-deadly volcanoes

295
00:16:15,250 --> 00:16:17,917
went dormant
sometime in the distant past.

296
00:16:18,042 --> 00:16:19,833
But this discovery proved

297
00:16:20,042 --> 00:16:24,000
that there is ongoing
volcanic activity on the planet.

298
00:16:24,125 --> 00:16:27,000
It also showed that we
still have a lot to learn

299
00:16:27,167 --> 00:16:31,500
about the volcanoes
on both Venus and Earth.

300
00:16:32,542 --> 00:16:35,875
It's so peculiar to think that
they used 30-year-old data

301
00:16:36,042 --> 00:16:38,000
and found something
that was never found before.

302
00:16:38,208 --> 00:16:40,167
Why didn't we see it earlier?

303
00:16:40,333 --> 00:16:45,292
So, the 2023 discovery was,
in my eyes, huge.

304
00:16:45,417 --> 00:16:48,917
Since Venus
is volcanically active today,

305
00:16:49,083 --> 00:16:51,542
we can actually get insights
into the volcanoes

306
00:16:51,708 --> 00:16:53,167
we have on the Earth,

307
00:16:53,250 --> 00:16:55,250
and the future of our planet,
in many ways.

308
00:16:56,500 --> 00:17:00,667
It's an important discovery
because both Venus and Earth

309
00:17:00,833 --> 00:17:02,792
are volcanic planets.

310
00:17:02,958 --> 00:17:05,375
Venus is releasing heat

311
00:17:05,542 --> 00:17:08,417
similar to the way Earth
is releasing heat.

312
00:17:08,583 --> 00:17:10,917
And so, we need
to learn the details

313
00:17:11,042 --> 00:17:13,125
about how that occurs.

314
00:17:14,583 --> 00:17:17,708
Studying the volcanoes on Venus
should show us

315
00:17:17,875 --> 00:17:21,417
how we could spare Earth
the same fate as its evil twin.

316
00:17:21,542 --> 00:17:24,167
But the mysteries of our
closest planetary neighbor

317
00:17:24,333 --> 00:17:27,333
go far beyond its fiery surface.

318
00:17:27,417 --> 00:17:30,458
For instance, scientists
are trying to figure out

319
00:17:30,625 --> 00:17:35,000
why Venus
actually spins backwards.

320
00:17:41,917 --> 00:17:44,792
In the archives
of the Saxon State Library

321
00:17:44,917 --> 00:17:49,958
lies an ancient manuscript
known as the Dresden Codex.

322
00:17:50,125 --> 00:17:53,625
Dated to around
the 11th century AD,

323
00:17:53,750 --> 00:17:56,000
the Dresden Codex is the oldest

324
00:17:56,208 --> 00:17:58,292
and best-preserved writing
of the Maya,

325
00:17:58,417 --> 00:18:01,750
a civilization
which ruled Mesoamerica

326
00:18:01,917 --> 00:18:04,750
for more than 3,000 years.

327
00:18:04,917 --> 00:18:08,250
And curiously,
the pages of this text

328
00:18:08,375 --> 00:18:10,833
contain a remarkable connection

329
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:12,708
to the planet Venus.

330
00:18:14,042 --> 00:18:16,917
The Maya worshipped Venus
and it appears

331
00:18:17,042 --> 00:18:20,000
that they put Venus
as the cornerstone

332
00:18:20,208 --> 00:18:22,542
of their faith
and also their civilization.

333
00:18:22,708 --> 00:18:27,458
And when scientists
looked at the Dresden Codex,

334
00:18:27,583 --> 00:18:31,917
they found what we now call
the Venus Table,

335
00:18:32,042 --> 00:18:34,833
which is able to predict
the position of Venus

336
00:18:35,042 --> 00:18:37,625
to a very high accuracy.

337
00:18:37,750 --> 00:18:40,708
In fact, they kept some
of the most accurate records

338
00:18:40,875 --> 00:18:42,167
in all of human history

339
00:18:42,375 --> 00:18:44,333
before the advent
of modern astronomy.

340
00:18:45,542 --> 00:18:48,417
KANE:
The observations
of Venus by the Mayans

341
00:18:48,542 --> 00:18:52,250
shows that, actually, Venus
has been incredibly important

342
00:18:52,375 --> 00:18:54,208
throughout human history.

343
00:18:55,417 --> 00:18:57,542
And the tracking
of Venus's motion

344
00:18:57,750 --> 00:19:00,125
has been something that people
have paid attention to

345
00:19:00,250 --> 00:19:01,833
for a long time.

346
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,167
SHATNER:
It's astonishing to think
that ancient people

347
00:19:05,333 --> 00:19:08,000
were just as fascinated
by the movement of Venus

348
00:19:08,208 --> 00:19:10,083
as modern astronomers.

349
00:19:10,250 --> 00:19:13,708
But technology has made
tracking the planet much easier

350
00:19:13,875 --> 00:19:19,458
and revealed some curious
aspects of Venus's motion.

351
00:19:19,583 --> 00:19:23,125
In 1962, at NASA's Deep Space
Instrumentation Facility,

352
00:19:23,292 --> 00:19:26,250
located in the Mojave Desert,

353
00:19:26,417 --> 00:19:29,750
experts discovered something
about the rotation of Venus

354
00:19:29,917 --> 00:19:32,250
that no one
had ever noticed before.

355
00:19:32,375 --> 00:19:36,208
It actually spins backwards.

356
00:19:36,375 --> 00:19:38,625
WAY:
Most of the planets in
the solar system are spinning

357
00:19:38,792 --> 00:19:40,708
in the same direction.
But Venus is spinning

358
00:19:40,875 --> 00:19:42,500
in the opposite direction.

359
00:19:42,708 --> 00:19:44,792
It's spinning backwards,

360
00:19:44,958 --> 00:19:47,542
compared to Earth's spin axis.

361
00:19:48,500 --> 00:19:50,708
O'ROURKE: Venus spins
in retrograde.

362
00:19:50,875 --> 00:19:53,542
You can think of that
as Venus spinning backwards,

363
00:19:53,708 --> 00:19:55,042
or you can think of that

364
00:19:55,208 --> 00:19:57,458
as Venus having been
flipped upside down.

365
00:19:57,625 --> 00:19:59,708
But however you think about it,

366
00:19:59,875 --> 00:20:05,292
what it means is that
Venus's spin is a big mystery.

367
00:20:06,667 --> 00:20:09,458
SHATNER:
Is Venus flipped upside down?

368
00:20:09,625 --> 00:20:11,958
It's an extraordinary notion.

369
00:20:12,167 --> 00:20:13,958
And it makes you wonder
what it would be like

370
00:20:14,125 --> 00:20:17,750
to live on a planet
that spins backwards?

371
00:20:17,917 --> 00:20:20,500
For everything Venus
has in common with the Earth,

372
00:20:20,708 --> 00:20:23,333
from its size and its mass,
it has some things

373
00:20:23,542 --> 00:20:24,833
that are really different
from the Earth, also.

374
00:20:25,042 --> 00:20:26,333
If you were on Venus,

375
00:20:26,500 --> 00:20:28,958
or if Earth was doing
what Venus did,

376
00:20:29,083 --> 00:20:31,833
the sun would
actually rise in the west

377
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,208
and set in the east.

378
00:20:35,167 --> 00:20:36,625
So, it would--
it would generally be

379
00:20:36,792 --> 00:20:38,208
a bizarre experience.

380
00:20:39,583 --> 00:20:42,083
SHATNER:
Curiously, Venus's backward spin

381
00:20:42,292 --> 00:20:44,875
isn't the strangest aspect
of its movement.

382
00:20:45,042 --> 00:20:47,042
Because not only
is Venus turning

383
00:20:47,208 --> 00:20:49,625
in the opposite direction,

384
00:20:49,792 --> 00:20:52,292
it also spins so slowly

385
00:20:52,375 --> 00:20:55,250
that it's hardly
rotating at all.

386
00:20:55,375 --> 00:20:59,292
Venus spins incredibly slowly
compared to Earth.

387
00:20:59,417 --> 00:21:03,792
We know that Earth
takes 24 hours

388
00:21:03,958 --> 00:21:06,833
to spin once on its axis.

389
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:11,167
In comparison, if you were
living on the surface of Venus,

390
00:21:11,375 --> 00:21:14,917
it would take 243 days to

391
00:21:15,042 --> 00:21:17,500
spin once around on Venus.

392
00:21:18,542 --> 00:21:22,333
KANE:
Venus rotates once
every 243 days,

393
00:21:22,500 --> 00:21:25,750
but it takes 225 days
to orbit the sun,

394
00:21:25,917 --> 00:21:28,042
which means it takes
longer to rotate

395
00:21:28,250 --> 00:21:30,833
than it does to orbit the sun.

396
00:21:31,042 --> 00:21:33,500
Its day is longer than its year.

397
00:21:33,583 --> 00:21:36,333
That makes it different to
almost everything else that

398
00:21:36,542 --> 00:21:38,542
we observe within
the solar system.

399
00:21:40,125 --> 00:21:42,000
SHATNER: Scientists are still
trying to learn more about

400
00:21:42,125 --> 00:21:43,667
Venus's unusual spin,

401
00:21:43,833 --> 00:21:47,000
and some have asked
what would happen

402
00:21:47,167 --> 00:21:50,292
if Earth rotated
at such a slow pace?

403
00:21:52,750 --> 00:21:55,000
Experts theorize that
the results would be

404
00:21:55,125 --> 00:21:59,500
nothing short of catastrophic.

405
00:21:59,625 --> 00:22:01,792
VERONICA BRAY:
If the Earth had
a really slow spin,

406
00:22:01,958 --> 00:22:04,708
we would have sections of
the population that would

407
00:22:04,875 --> 00:22:06,500
have to live
entirely in darkness

408
00:22:06,667 --> 00:22:10,042
for a large section of the year.

409
00:22:11,208 --> 00:22:13,083
The rest, on the lit side
of the planet,

410
00:22:13,250 --> 00:22:15,833
would be scorched mercilessly.

411
00:22:17,250 --> 00:22:18,667
McGEE:
Having one side of the planet be

412
00:22:18,833 --> 00:22:20,958
so much hotter than the other
would mean there are

413
00:22:21,125 --> 00:22:24,125
torrential winds that would be
blown from the hot side

414
00:22:24,292 --> 00:22:26,458
and sucked onto the cold side.

415
00:22:27,542 --> 00:22:30,833
You'd have cyclones
and massive storms

416
00:22:31,042 --> 00:22:32,667
at the transition zones.

417
00:22:32,875 --> 00:22:34,750
It would be
a really unfriendly place.

418
00:22:35,875 --> 00:22:39,917
SHATNER:
Could Venus's slow,
backwards spin be one reason

419
00:22:40,042 --> 00:22:41,708
it's such a hostile wasteland?

420
00:22:41,875 --> 00:22:45,333
And if so,
what caused Venus to rotate

421
00:22:45,542 --> 00:22:47,083
so differently from Earth?

422
00:22:47,208 --> 00:22:49,583
According to
planetary scientists,

423
00:22:49,708 --> 00:22:51,667
a clue may lie in the fact that

424
00:22:51,833 --> 00:22:55,167
while Earth
is orbited by a moon,

425
00:22:55,375 --> 00:22:57,833
Venus is not.

426
00:22:59,333 --> 00:23:03,333
BRAY:
We think that the Earth's moon
made Earth habitable.

427
00:23:03,458 --> 00:23:05,333
One way that
the moon has helped us

428
00:23:05,458 --> 00:23:07,750
have a habitable planet

429
00:23:07,917 --> 00:23:11,167
is that it stabilizes
our rotation.

430
00:23:12,833 --> 00:23:15,333
So, there's a lot of
planets in the solar system,

431
00:23:15,500 --> 00:23:19,333
like Venus, that are wobbling
like a spinning top.

432
00:23:19,542 --> 00:23:22,500
And if you have
a large enough wobble,

433
00:23:22,708 --> 00:23:25,875
it can lead to extreme seasons.

434
00:23:26,042 --> 00:23:31,500
And for Earth, the Moon
stabilizes our rotation

435
00:23:31,625 --> 00:23:33,625
and we only wobble a little bit,

436
00:23:33,750 --> 00:23:36,542
giving us relatively
mild seasons,

437
00:23:36,708 --> 00:23:39,375
which helps
the development of life on Earth

438
00:23:39,500 --> 00:23:42,167
and keeps things
habitable for us.

439
00:23:43,583 --> 00:23:45,167
KANE:
The Earth's moon is one of

440
00:23:45,333 --> 00:23:47,417
the distinctive features
of the Earth,

441
00:23:47,583 --> 00:23:49,333
and we're not really sure

442
00:23:49,542 --> 00:23:52,500
why Venus doesn't have a moon.

443
00:23:53,583 --> 00:23:57,000
And it is still something
that we struggle to understand,

444
00:23:57,125 --> 00:23:59,167
how a planet

445
00:23:59,375 --> 00:24:01,833
can have a rotation
that is the opposite to

446
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,042
almost everything else
that we observe,

447
00:24:04,208 --> 00:24:08,542
and is now in a permanent
state of hostile conditions.

448
00:24:11,208 --> 00:24:13,792
A planet that rotates backwards?

449
00:24:13,917 --> 00:24:15,667
It's enough
to make your head spin.

450
00:24:15,833 --> 00:24:19,500
But experts claim what's
even more bizarre about Venus

451
00:24:19,667 --> 00:24:21,250
is its atmosphere,

452
00:24:21,417 --> 00:24:23,333
because the poisonous clouds
that cover it

453
00:24:23,542 --> 00:24:25,458
may actually contain

454
00:24:25,625 --> 00:24:28,458
the seeds of life.

455
00:24:32,458 --> 00:24:34,875
(siren wailing)

456
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,083
SHATNER:
Smoke from more than
a thousand wildfires

457
00:24:39,208 --> 00:24:40,750
sweeps over southern Canada

458
00:24:40,917 --> 00:24:43,667
and the northern United States.

459
00:24:43,833 --> 00:24:47,833
A fiery haze
envelops cities like Chicago

460
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:49,458
and New York,

461
00:24:49,625 --> 00:24:52,250
rendering the air so toxic

462
00:24:52,458 --> 00:24:56,875
that experts label it
a lethal threat to life.

463
00:24:59,542 --> 00:25:01,542
SUTTER:
At the height of the wildfires,

464
00:25:01,708 --> 00:25:04,792
the pictures taken from
downtown Manhattan

465
00:25:04,917 --> 00:25:09,500
looked like the city
existed on another planet.

466
00:25:09,667 --> 00:25:12,375
But you could be standing in

467
00:25:12,542 --> 00:25:15,375
the middle of
the worst atmosphere

468
00:25:15,542 --> 00:25:18,083
you can possibly
imagine on Earth,

469
00:25:18,250 --> 00:25:20,875
and it's nothing compared to

470
00:25:21,042 --> 00:25:22,792
a normal day on Venus.

471
00:25:24,083 --> 00:25:27,000
CLARA SOUSA-SILVA:
In many ways, Earth is heaven

472
00:25:27,167 --> 00:25:29,167
and Venus is hell.

473
00:25:29,333 --> 00:25:32,625
The surface of Venus
is so, so hot

474
00:25:32,792 --> 00:25:34,667
that it can melt lead.

475
00:25:35,708 --> 00:25:38,750
It is extremely dry
and extremely acidic,

476
00:25:38,917 --> 00:25:43,542
more than any place we've ever
attempted to find life on Earth.

477
00:25:43,708 --> 00:25:47,333
And so Venus has almost
no part of it

478
00:25:47,500 --> 00:25:50,208
that isn't absolutely
hostile to life.

479
00:25:51,542 --> 00:25:53,583
SHATNER:
It's hard to imagine
that humans,

480
00:25:53,792 --> 00:25:55,292
or any other life forms,

481
00:25:55,458 --> 00:25:57,542
could ever survive in the brutal

482
00:25:57,708 --> 00:26:00,000
and inhospitable
environment of Venus.

483
00:26:00,167 --> 00:26:03,625
But, incredibly, that
hasn't stopped scientists

484
00:26:03,792 --> 00:26:05,417
from searching for signs of life

485
00:26:05,625 --> 00:26:08,083
on Earth's evil twin.

486
00:26:11,167 --> 00:26:13,167
SOUSA-SILVA:
On Earth, life has been found

487
00:26:13,333 --> 00:26:15,792
in every conceivable place.

488
00:26:16,792 --> 00:26:20,000
However, if we did
find life on Venus,

489
00:26:20,208 --> 00:26:24,292
a place so different from Earth,
it would mean that life

490
00:26:24,417 --> 00:26:26,667
is not just inevitable,
it is common.

491
00:26:26,833 --> 00:26:28,292
It is everywhere.

492
00:26:28,458 --> 00:26:30,500
And so when we
look for life on Venus,

493
00:26:30,708 --> 00:26:32,167
we look for the unusual,

494
00:26:32,375 --> 00:26:33,583
we look for the strange,

495
00:26:33,750 --> 00:26:36,167
and we don't just
look for the familiar.

496
00:26:37,208 --> 00:26:39,875
SHATNER:
Is Venus home to
strange life forms that,

497
00:26:40,042 --> 00:26:43,042
against all odds, have
somehow managed to survive

498
00:26:43,208 --> 00:26:45,500
in its lethal conditions?

499
00:26:45,708 --> 00:26:50,167
And if so, where on the planet
might they be found?

500
00:26:50,292 --> 00:26:52,500
Well, according to one theory,

501
00:26:52,667 --> 00:26:57,000
it could be
in an unexpected location.

502
00:27:01,750 --> 00:27:04,167
In the scientific
journal Nature,

503
00:27:04,333 --> 00:27:08,625
astronomer Carl Sagan
and biophysicist Harold Morowitz

504
00:27:08,792 --> 00:27:11,625
publish an
intriguing hypothesis.

505
00:27:12,750 --> 00:27:15,500
They propose that if life
does exist on Venus,

506
00:27:15,625 --> 00:27:17,500
it would not be
on the planet's surface,

507
00:27:17,708 --> 00:27:20,333
but rather...

508
00:27:20,500 --> 00:27:22,792
in its clouds.

509
00:27:23,833 --> 00:27:25,958
SOUSA-SILVA:
Venus is a pretty
hostile place to

510
00:27:26,083 --> 00:27:27,917
most life almost everywhere.

511
00:27:28,042 --> 00:27:31,833
However, there are
places in the clouds

512
00:27:31,958 --> 00:27:33,792
that are really like
a summer day

513
00:27:33,917 --> 00:27:36,208
on the surface of the Earth.

514
00:27:36,417 --> 00:27:39,500
You get just enough light
from the sun to get energy,

515
00:27:39,708 --> 00:27:41,917
but still some protection
from the atmosphere.

516
00:27:43,042 --> 00:27:44,792
HAQQ-MISRA:
The cloud decks of
Venus are actually

517
00:27:44,917 --> 00:27:48,458
a fairly Earth-like environment.

518
00:27:48,583 --> 00:27:49,833
And so Carl Sagan
and Harold Morowitz

519
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,167
had an idea that
perhaps microbial life

520
00:27:53,375 --> 00:27:55,292
has found a way to survive

521
00:27:55,458 --> 00:27:57,042
in the atmosphere of Venus

522
00:27:57,208 --> 00:27:59,333
where you've got
these habitable conditions.

523
00:28:00,417 --> 00:28:01,708
Over the last few decades,

524
00:28:01,917 --> 00:28:03,500
we've learned
fascinating information

525
00:28:03,667 --> 00:28:05,125
about so-called extremophiles,

526
00:28:05,292 --> 00:28:08,417
microbial life
that has adapted to

527
00:28:08,583 --> 00:28:10,833
unbelievable conditions
on Earth,

528
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,167
even places where there's
virtually no water,

529
00:28:13,375 --> 00:28:14,833
high into the atmosphere.

530
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:16,583
Now, whether there's
life on Venus

531
00:28:16,750 --> 00:28:18,000
remains an open question.

532
00:28:18,208 --> 00:28:19,833
But it sure
has got scientists thinking

533
00:28:20,042 --> 00:28:21,542
about what that would mean

534
00:28:21,708 --> 00:28:23,125
for life in the Venus clouds.

535
00:28:24,875 --> 00:28:26,667
SHATNER:
Could there be life
in the clouds of Venus,

536
00:28:26,792 --> 00:28:28,500
as experts theorize?

537
00:28:28,583 --> 00:28:31,917
Planetary scientists not only
believe it is possible,

538
00:28:32,125 --> 00:28:34,458
they also may have actual proof.

539
00:28:34,583 --> 00:28:36,500
And it was found
by looking at Venus

540
00:28:36,667 --> 00:28:39,875
in an entirely different light.

541
00:28:44,500 --> 00:28:45,750
In a groundbreaking paper

542
00:28:45,917 --> 00:28:48,125
published in
the journal Astrobiology,

543
00:28:48,292 --> 00:28:51,583
biochemist Rakesh Mogul
and a team of scientists

544
00:28:51,792 --> 00:28:54,208
made an
astonishing announcement.

545
00:28:55,333 --> 00:28:57,833
They discovered that
although, to the naked eye,

546
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,417
Venus's clouds appear to be
a light-colored, uniform veil,

547
00:29:01,542 --> 00:29:05,167
when the planet is observed
in ultraviolet light...

548
00:29:08,667 --> 00:29:10,000
...it reveals that the clouds

549
00:29:10,208 --> 00:29:14,167
contain mysterious dark patches.

550
00:29:16,417 --> 00:29:19,333
Venus looks very different
in different forms of light.

551
00:29:20,542 --> 00:29:21,792
And in these dark patches

552
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,250
where we see
ultraviolet contrast,

553
00:29:24,417 --> 00:29:27,958
these patches move around
in mesmerizing patterns,

554
00:29:28,083 --> 00:29:30,833
and what we saw is that
their spectral characteristics

555
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:32,458
are very similar to

556
00:29:32,667 --> 00:29:36,500
microbial algal blooms
that we have here on Earth,

557
00:29:36,708 --> 00:29:39,458
something that is
alive and biological.

558
00:29:39,625 --> 00:29:41,625
So we put that theory out there

559
00:29:41,792 --> 00:29:43,500
that those UV contrasts

560
00:29:43,708 --> 00:29:45,625
look like algal blooms.

561
00:29:45,750 --> 00:29:47,500
So, with Venus,

562
00:29:47,667 --> 00:29:48,833
I'm very much interested
in the potential

563
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:50,583
for the clouds to be

564
00:29:50,750 --> 00:29:51,667
a habitable zone,
habitable environment.

565
00:29:51,833 --> 00:29:53,208
And that's really exciting.

566
00:29:54,250 --> 00:29:56,917
SHATNER:
The fascinating theory that
life may have found a safe haven

567
00:29:57,125 --> 00:30:00,667
in the clouds of Venus made
headlines around the world,

568
00:30:00,833 --> 00:30:04,083
and it suggests
that Earth's twin planet

569
00:30:04,208 --> 00:30:08,083
may not be as evil
as we commonly think.

570
00:30:09,458 --> 00:30:10,750
Scientists are still arguing

571
00:30:10,917 --> 00:30:12,167
about life existing
in the clouds,

572
00:30:12,333 --> 00:30:14,000
but it's definitely
not impossible.

573
00:30:14,083 --> 00:30:16,500
It's a tantalizing possibility,

574
00:30:16,708 --> 00:30:18,917
and it really illuminates

575
00:30:19,042 --> 00:30:21,958
how little we know about Venus

576
00:30:22,125 --> 00:30:24,792
and the fact that
we can't exclude the idea

577
00:30:24,958 --> 00:30:27,000
that life exists in the clouds.

578
00:30:29,083 --> 00:30:32,750
Finding microscopic life
in the clouds of Venus

579
00:30:32,917 --> 00:30:34,917
would be a monumental discovery.

580
00:30:35,125 --> 00:30:37,208
And what's intriguing is

581
00:30:37,375 --> 00:30:39,458
how NASA plans to
search for that evidence.

582
00:30:39,542 --> 00:30:44,375
They're building a revolutionary
new spacecraft in the form

583
00:30:44,542 --> 00:30:47,000
of a robotic balloon.

584
00:30:51,375 --> 00:30:53,417
SHATNER:
At the dawn of the Space Age,

585
00:30:53,542 --> 00:30:57,000
Venus was a prime target
for planetary exploration.

586
00:30:57,208 --> 00:31:01,000
In 1962, NASA's Mariner 2 probe

587
00:31:01,125 --> 00:31:04,583
made the first successful
flyby of Venus.

588
00:31:04,750 --> 00:31:07,583
And then, in 1970,
the Soviet Union's

589
00:31:07,750 --> 00:31:09,042
Venera 7 spacecraft

590
00:31:09,208 --> 00:31:13,542
made the first successful
landing on the planet.

591
00:31:14,583 --> 00:31:17,833
SHATNER:
Over the next 15 years,
nine more probes landed

592
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,333
on the surface of Venus,

593
00:31:20,458 --> 00:31:24,042
with Vega 2 making
the final touchdown in 1985.

594
00:31:25,958 --> 00:31:27,167
But since that time,

595
00:31:27,333 --> 00:31:30,042
no spacecraft have landed
on Venus,

596
00:31:30,208 --> 00:31:32,958
or even flown
through its atmosphere.

597
00:31:33,125 --> 00:31:37,500
Which begs the question,
why did space agencies shift

598
00:31:37,667 --> 00:31:39,917
their focus away from Venus?

599
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,042
The surface of Venus
is inhospitable

600
00:31:44,208 --> 00:31:47,042
to all our current
spacecraft technologies.

601
00:31:47,208 --> 00:31:49,417
So, when we send things
to Venus,

602
00:31:49,583 --> 00:31:53,333
we know that they can
only survive for a few hours,

603
00:31:53,500 --> 00:31:58,667
because once the circuitry
is as hot as Venus is,

604
00:31:58,833 --> 00:32:01,333
they're cooked, and they die.

605
00:32:01,500 --> 00:32:03,458
And so, the grand
challenge for the future

606
00:32:03,625 --> 00:32:06,333
of Venus exploration is to
build something that survives.

607
00:32:08,083 --> 00:32:09,792
SHATNER:
Will scientists be able
to design a probe

608
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,083
that can withstand
the lethal conditions of Venus?

609
00:32:13,250 --> 00:32:18,083
As it turns out, NASA is working
on this problem right now.

610
00:32:24,875 --> 00:32:27,583
In this remote area,
more than 100 miles away

611
00:32:27,750 --> 00:32:29,875
from the closest major city,

612
00:32:30,042 --> 00:32:35,167
a strange, shimmering
airship rises into the sky.

613
00:32:35,375 --> 00:32:39,000
Known as an aerial
robotic balloon, or aerobot,

614
00:32:39,208 --> 00:32:41,250
the device is
a prototype developed

615
00:32:41,417 --> 00:32:43,750
by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.

616
00:32:43,917 --> 00:32:46,417
NASA specifically chose
this barren,

617
00:32:46,583 --> 00:32:49,500
inhospitable location
to test the aerobot

618
00:32:49,667 --> 00:32:53,708
because the climate
conditions closely resemble...

619
00:32:53,917 --> 00:32:58,208
the upper atmosphere of Venus.

620
00:32:58,375 --> 00:33:00,875
BYRNE:
Balloons are the next
technology

621
00:33:01,042 --> 00:33:03,167
for how we explore Venus.

622
00:33:03,375 --> 00:33:05,833
Because the atmosphere
of Venus at an altitude of

623
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,708
around 40 miles
is relatively clement,

624
00:33:08,875 --> 00:33:11,750
where the temperature and
pressure conditions are okay,

625
00:33:11,875 --> 00:33:16,083
a balloon could float for weeks,
months, or even years.

626
00:33:16,250 --> 00:33:19,250
And so, we would be
uniquely positioned to

627
00:33:19,417 --> 00:33:22,417
conduct all kinds of
scientific investigations.

628
00:33:22,583 --> 00:33:25,458
SHATNER:
To help it endure
the harsh environment of Venus,

629
00:33:25,542 --> 00:33:28,750
the aerobot is equipped
with advanced features,

630
00:33:28,917 --> 00:33:32,583
such as a puncture-proof
metallic skin,

631
00:33:32,708 --> 00:33:36,167
and remote-controlled
helium chambers to allow for

632
00:33:36,333 --> 00:33:39,167
precise altitude adjustments.

633
00:33:39,250 --> 00:33:41,417
NASA hopes that these
advancements will enable

634
00:33:41,625 --> 00:33:43,792
the probe to conduct
the most comprehensive

635
00:33:43,958 --> 00:33:47,375
exploration of Venus to date.

636
00:33:47,583 --> 00:33:50,500
I'm really excited about
exploring Venus with a balloon,

637
00:33:50,667 --> 00:33:55,167
because a few years ago,
some astronomers claimed

638
00:33:55,375 --> 00:33:58,167
a detection of phosphine gas
in the clouds of Venus.

639
00:33:58,375 --> 00:34:02,208
That was incredibly exciting
for everyone because

640
00:34:02,375 --> 00:34:07,000
phosphine gas is a biosignature,
it's a sign of life.

641
00:34:07,208 --> 00:34:09,833
Scientists are still arguing
about how much phosphine

642
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,292
is in the atmosphere of Venus,

643
00:34:12,417 --> 00:34:15,333
but if you sent
a balloon to Venus,

644
00:34:15,500 --> 00:34:18,167
you can actually do
geophysical investigations

645
00:34:18,333 --> 00:34:21,667
about the possibility
that life exists in the clouds.

646
00:34:23,167 --> 00:34:26,125
SHATNER:
NASA plans to build a fleet
of aerobots that could be

647
00:34:26,208 --> 00:34:29,792
floating through Venus's
atmosphere within a decade.

648
00:34:29,875 --> 00:34:33,083
However, the best way
to explore our twin planet

649
00:34:33,250 --> 00:34:36,667
would be to send astronauts,
instead of robots.

650
00:34:36,833 --> 00:34:39,250
So, could there be a way

651
00:34:39,417 --> 00:34:42,583
for humans to explore Venus?

652
00:34:42,708 --> 00:34:46,500
The biggest obstacle to humans,
if we want to explore Venus,

653
00:34:46,625 --> 00:34:49,458
is the fact that
the planet is so hot.

654
00:34:49,583 --> 00:34:52,833
This is a very dangerous
environment

655
00:34:53,042 --> 00:34:54,500
for humans to venture.

656
00:34:56,375 --> 00:34:58,625
And so, it be comes
very difficult to think about

657
00:34:58,833 --> 00:35:01,750
how you would do this
in a pragmatic sense.

658
00:35:03,208 --> 00:35:05,583
There have been
science fiction stories,

659
00:35:05,750 --> 00:35:08,375
and even people have
put good faith effort into

660
00:35:08,542 --> 00:35:11,250
building a kind of domain,
like we bring to the bottom

661
00:35:11,417 --> 00:35:13,792
of the oceans,
that are protected from

662
00:35:13,917 --> 00:35:15,167
the sulfuric acid,
and could have

663
00:35:15,333 --> 00:35:17,625
their own sort of
environment.

664
00:35:17,708 --> 00:35:21,417
But all of them are
highly speculative and,

665
00:35:21,542 --> 00:35:24,333
of course, very challenging,
technologically.

666
00:35:25,375 --> 00:35:28,375
SHATNER:
Figuring out how
to keep humans alive on Venus

667
00:35:28,542 --> 00:35:31,250
seems like
an insurmountable problem.

668
00:35:31,375 --> 00:35:33,417
But some experts believe
it's possible,

669
00:35:33,542 --> 00:35:37,000
that science fiction
might soon become...

670
00:35:37,167 --> 00:35:38,667
science fact.

671
00:35:44,208 --> 00:35:46,292
NASA announces a new plan

672
00:35:46,458 --> 00:35:48,167
for an experimental vehicle

673
00:35:48,375 --> 00:35:52,917
that would allow astronauts
to explore the planet Venus.

674
00:35:53,083 --> 00:35:54,417
The proposed device is called

675
00:35:54,625 --> 00:35:57,833
the "High Altitude
Venus Operational Concept,"

676
00:35:57,958 --> 00:35:59,667
otherwise known...

677
00:35:59,833 --> 00:36:01,833
as HAVOC.

678
00:36:03,042 --> 00:36:05,667
HAVOC is essentially
an airship, a blimp,

679
00:36:05,875 --> 00:36:07,542
with a gondola underneath

680
00:36:07,708 --> 00:36:10,500
in which humans,
actual astronauts,

681
00:36:10,625 --> 00:36:13,625
would spend some amount
of time conducting scientific

682
00:36:13,750 --> 00:36:18,667
experiments at about 40
to 45 miles above the surface.

683
00:36:18,875 --> 00:36:21,167
LAU:
Basically, we would live
on these large,

684
00:36:21,292 --> 00:36:23,083
floating platforms;

685
00:36:23,250 --> 00:36:26,292
our own cloud cities on Venus,

686
00:36:26,417 --> 00:36:28,750
allowing humans
to live in the atmosphere,

687
00:36:28,917 --> 00:36:33,667
to do research on Venus
without ever going down.

688
00:36:33,833 --> 00:36:35,250
And then when they're finished,
they could just

689
00:36:35,375 --> 00:36:38,208
take back off again from
these floating platforms.

690
00:36:39,708 --> 00:36:41,917
O'ROURKE:
Something like HAVOC
really illustrates

691
00:36:42,083 --> 00:36:44,500
how people rise
to meet challenges.

692
00:36:44,667 --> 00:36:47,500
The hostile conditions on Venus
are a curse

693
00:36:47,667 --> 00:36:49,250
because it makes it hard
to do things,

694
00:36:49,375 --> 00:36:51,250
but they're also a blessing
in that it forces us

695
00:36:51,417 --> 00:36:53,125
to stretch ourselves
and become creative

696
00:36:53,292 --> 00:36:54,583
and think of new ideas.

697
00:36:55,708 --> 00:36:58,375
SHATNER:
The notion of humans inhabiting
cloud cities above Venus

698
00:36:58,542 --> 00:37:03,542
is fascinating, and hopefully,
it will actually be achieved.

699
00:37:03,708 --> 00:37:07,083
But there's an even
more ambitious proposal

700
00:37:07,250 --> 00:37:10,250
when it comes
to human exploration of Venus.

701
00:37:10,417 --> 00:37:14,333
It involves transforming
the entire planet...

702
00:37:14,542 --> 00:37:16,875
to make it more like Earth.

703
00:37:24,708 --> 00:37:28,000
SHATNER:
In the journal Science,
an intriguing article titled

704
00:37:28,208 --> 00:37:30,500
"The Planet Venus" is published

705
00:37:30,583 --> 00:37:32,958
by astronomer Carl Sagan.

706
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,458
Although Sagan would later
write about the possibility of

707
00:37:36,583 --> 00:37:39,708
life in the clouds of Venus,
in this paper,

708
00:37:39,875 --> 00:37:43,000
he proposes something
far more incredible.

709
00:37:43,208 --> 00:37:45,833
He suggests that it might
be possible to transform Venus

710
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:50,875
into a planet capable
of sustaining human life.

711
00:37:51,042 --> 00:37:55,833
This concept is referred to
as terraforming.

712
00:37:57,625 --> 00:38:00,292
Terraforming means changing
the environment

713
00:38:00,500 --> 00:38:02,417
to be even more like Earth.

714
00:38:03,750 --> 00:38:06,750
Carl Sagan imagined
that you could change

715
00:38:06,917 --> 00:38:08,958
the surface of Venus

716
00:38:09,125 --> 00:38:11,958
into something which could
have conditions that are similar

717
00:38:12,125 --> 00:38:14,833
to Earth that humans can
survive in.

718
00:38:16,042 --> 00:38:17,167
SUTTER:
Today, humans would be

719
00:38:17,375 --> 00:38:21,000
simultaneously crushed
and melted

720
00:38:21,208 --> 00:38:23,000
if you were to step foot
on Venus.

721
00:38:24,083 --> 00:38:27,792
This is just hell
in planet form.

722
00:38:27,958 --> 00:38:32,333
And so if we want to turn
Venus into a copy of Earth,

723
00:38:32,542 --> 00:38:34,875
we have our work cut out for us.

724
00:38:35,958 --> 00:38:37,667
SHATNER:
The idea of terraforming Venus

725
00:38:37,833 --> 00:38:40,458
into an Earth-like world is
astonishing.

726
00:38:40,625 --> 00:38:42,833
But how could we
possibly achieve

727
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:44,667
such an extraordinary feat?

728
00:38:44,833 --> 00:38:48,750
Carl Sagan theorized
that one way might be to

729
00:38:48,917 --> 00:38:51,167
seed the clouds of Venus
with algae,

730
00:38:51,375 --> 00:38:54,500
to convert carbon dioxide
into oxygen,

731
00:38:54,667 --> 00:38:59,375
which would potentially trigger
a planet-wide transformation.

732
00:39:02,042 --> 00:39:03,708
O'ROURKE:
Carl Sagan was brilliant,
and he had

733
00:39:03,875 --> 00:39:07,625
almost the right picture
of terraforming Venus.

734
00:39:08,875 --> 00:39:11,667
The only thing he got wrong
is he thought the clouds

735
00:39:11,875 --> 00:39:14,667
were made of ice crystals
and water vapor.

736
00:39:14,833 --> 00:39:18,292
Unfortunately,
we now know that those clouds

737
00:39:18,458 --> 00:39:21,208
are sulfuric acid,
not predominantly water vapor.

738
00:39:21,375 --> 00:39:23,958
And so, we'd have to get
a little more creative

739
00:39:24,083 --> 00:39:26,542
if we wanted to terraform Venus.

740
00:39:27,708 --> 00:39:30,042
But it's definitely
not impossible.

741
00:39:31,542 --> 00:39:34,542
LAU:
When it comes to the concept
of terraforming,

742
00:39:34,708 --> 00:39:37,833
sure, Venus now has
this extremely hot

743
00:39:38,042 --> 00:39:41,250
and dense surface,
this thick atmosphere.

744
00:39:41,417 --> 00:39:43,250
It doesn't seem hospitable.

745
00:39:43,375 --> 00:39:46,250
But as our ability
to geo-engineer

746
00:39:46,375 --> 00:39:48,250
the environment
around us changes,

747
00:39:48,417 --> 00:39:51,292
we have to wonder,
maybe Earth's twin planet

748
00:39:51,458 --> 00:39:53,500
will truly become
our twin planet

749
00:39:53,667 --> 00:39:56,708
as we terraform Venus
and give it a biosphere

750
00:39:56,917 --> 00:39:58,542
just like we have.

751
00:39:58,750 --> 00:40:00,917
Maybe in
the not-too-distant future,

752
00:40:01,042 --> 00:40:03,292
Venus and Earth will look
almost the same.

753
00:40:03,500 --> 00:40:07,667
SHATNER:
Today, terraforming Venus
remains an intriguing concept

754
00:40:07,833 --> 00:40:10,542
that scientists
are still debating.

755
00:40:10,708 --> 00:40:12,667
But in the more
immediate future,

756
00:40:12,792 --> 00:40:15,667
NASA and
the European Space Agency

757
00:40:15,875 --> 00:40:18,583
are planning exciting missions
to study Venus.

758
00:40:18,708 --> 00:40:21,625
The data they collect
will hopefully solve

759
00:40:21,792 --> 00:40:26,000
some of the many mysteries
of Earth's evil twin.

760
00:40:28,333 --> 00:40:30,500
O'ROURKE:
One of the goals of the missions

761
00:40:30,667 --> 00:40:34,167
that NASA and the European Space
Agency are sending to Venus

762
00:40:34,292 --> 00:40:38,125
is to make maps of the surface
at high resolution

763
00:40:38,292 --> 00:40:42,667
of some of the most exciting
types of terrain on Venus.

764
00:40:42,875 --> 00:40:44,667
There's a lot of mountains,
a lot of valleys,

765
00:40:44,875 --> 00:40:48,375
a lot of ridges, that have
only had relatively imprecise

766
00:40:48,583 --> 00:40:51,000
and perhaps inaccurate
measurements thus far.

767
00:40:51,167 --> 00:40:54,750
And so, we could make a variety
of interesting discoveries.

768
00:40:55,833 --> 00:40:58,667
LAU:
Venus really does beg
for further exploration.

769
00:40:58,875 --> 00:41:01,125
Sure, we've had landers
go to Venus in the past,

770
00:41:01,292 --> 00:41:04,500
but there may one day
be a rover concept design

771
00:41:04,708 --> 00:41:06,500
that allows us
to rove on the surface

772
00:41:06,708 --> 00:41:10,167
and get some science
for us to better understand

773
00:41:10,333 --> 00:41:11,583
how to avoid undergoing

774
00:41:11,750 --> 00:41:14,750
the cataclysms
that Venus underwent.

775
00:41:14,958 --> 00:41:17,208
MOGUL:
In science, it's important
to push the boundary,

776
00:41:17,333 --> 00:41:20,500
so studying Venus
is really exciting

777
00:41:20,708 --> 00:41:22,375
because we don't know
a lot about Venus.

778
00:41:22,542 --> 00:41:25,000
There have been a lot of probes
that have been sent

779
00:41:25,167 --> 00:41:27,667
to Venus and they have studied
A, B, and C, and D,

780
00:41:27,833 --> 00:41:31,167
but there's still a lot left
in the alphabet to explore.

781
00:41:32,750 --> 00:41:35,625
In the coming years,
the exciting new missions

782
00:41:35,792 --> 00:41:38,958
to Venus may help answer
some burning questions

783
00:41:39,125 --> 00:41:40,667
about our twin planet.

784
00:41:40,833 --> 00:41:43,917
Could life exist in its clouds?

785
00:41:44,125 --> 00:41:46,500
Or might humans
one day call it home?

786
00:41:46,625 --> 00:41:49,750
It's all cosmically fascinating.

787
00:41:49,917 --> 00:41:52,292
But until we actually journey
to the planet

788
00:41:52,458 --> 00:41:54,250
and see it with our own eyes,

789
00:41:54,375 --> 00:41:58,208
the secrets of Venus
will remain...

790
00:41:58,375 --> 00:41:59,875
unexplained.

791
00:42:00,042 --> 00:42:02,083
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