Science Lecture - Exploring Venus with Venus Express April 28, 2009

and the media persons about the fascinating world of basic sciences and its promising future. The series deals with topics on frontier areas of science and technology for the spreading of new knowledge and awareness among the students as well as the public at large. Venus is nicknamed the "Jewel of the Sky". Because of the greenhouse effect; it is hotter than Mercury, even though it's not as close to the sun. The brightest of all planets, Venus, is also known as Earths twin. Similar to Earth in many respects, Venus currently has a very different climate with its carbon dioxide atmosphere with almost 90 times the pressure than that on the Earth with a temperature of nearly 475C every where on the surface. Venus has been explored by more spacecraft than any other object, except perhaps the Moon, and Venus Express launched by the European Space Agency is currently orbiting Venus and collecting data. We have learned much about Venus, yet a lot of the questions are still to be answered. In the near future, even more missions to Venus are expected. Dr. Sanjay Limaye began his career with research on the atmosphere of Venus from Mariner 10 observations for his Ph.D. thesis, "Venus stratospheric circulation: a diagnostic study" which was completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977 with Prof. Verner E. Suomi. During 1978-1980, he was a National Research Council Resident Research Associate at the Institute for Space Studies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, New York.Dr. Limaye is a member of the Venus Monitoring Camera for European Space Agency's Venus Express Mission, planned for launch in November 2005. He is currently a member of the NASAs Venus Science and Technology Definition Team for a Flagship mission and also the Venus Experts Group of the International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland. He is a Participating Scientist on the European Space Agencys Venus Express Mission since January 2006 and a Co-Investigator on the Venus Monitoring Camera on Venus Express. In addition, he has been active in science education and outreach activities and has given many public lectures on planets and global climate change in India and in the US.As different as Venus is, data explored from this bizarre planet as well as from other planets may well help us understand our own atmosphere. An understanding of the runaway greenhouse effect, and of the role of aerosols like sulfuric acid, may help us prevent the Earth from eventually becoming another Venus. Such practical considerations are another reason why we must continue to explore. The talk will present what have learned from the past missions to Venus and key findings from Venus Express and summarize the future missions briefly.

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