Transcript: Venus, second planet out from the Sun, is the sister planet to the Earth, closest among all the planets to the Earth in size and mass. Its atmosphere is composed of 96 percent carbon dioxide and 4 percent nitrogen with very small amounts of water vapor, argon, sulfur dioxide, and other trace gases. Due to the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Venus has been subject at ancient times in its history to a runaway greenhouse effect where the Sun’s radiation is trapped within the atmosphere, because as the Sun enters it is degraded to infrared waves that are absorbed by the carbon dioxide and cannot escape. Thus, the shrouding blanket of Venus' atmosphere causes an intense temperature on the surface, about 750 degrees Kelvin or 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Lead would melt on the surface of Venus. Paper would spontaneously combust. This hellish environment was first noticed by Russian space probes. The first several space probes that the Russians launched toward Venus could not even survive the passage through the atmosphere, but eventually we realized that Venus was a barren, lifeless, volcanic place with an atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide and with sulfuric acid particles penetrating the mists, a very unpleasant place to be named after the goddess of love.