Venus as a natural resources treasury

Who will conquer the outer space natural resources?

Astronomers found something new on Venus: mountains, which form its landscape, apparently consist of metal, and appear to be gigantic natural resources plant. To extract this, is impossible. Not yet.

Washington university astronomers believe that the mountains consist, most probably, of lead and bismuth. Temperature on the planet surface is so high that lead melts down. However, at height the metal cools down and solidifies. This explains why space radars which monitor Venus magnetic shield observe high activity in hill regions of the planet.  

Lead and bismuth give brightness to the planet: it can almost always be seen on the night sky. Venus has approximately the same size as Earth, but it is closer to the Sun and possesses a very concentrated atmosphere, which consists mainly of carbon. Scientists think that surface temperature on Venus is +465 degrees Celsius. Moreover, air pressure on Venus is 90 times that of the Earth’s.

The only means to study Venus atmosphere is to scan the surface with radar. Several satellites were launched from Earth with this purpose. Especially interesting was the information from “Magellan” satellite, which studied Venus from 1990 to 1994. Photographs it made answered some questions, for example, it became clear that there are volcanic soils on the planet, even the entire valleys and fields of lava. Some new questions also emerged, for instance, scientists could not understand for long time, why the mountain chains on the planet are so bright.