Studying the atmospheres of other planets in our Solar System provides us with information concerning the evolution of these planets. Earth’s sister planet Venus is especially of interest as its atmosphere may reflect the future of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Venus revolves around the Sun in a very slow, anti-clockwise (“retrograde”) sense. Due to its very dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulphuric acid clouds Venus has undergone runaway greenhouse warming, whereby trapped solar radiation has heated the planet’s surface to an average temperature of around 470°C.