Venera 14 on Venus

A Venera 14 image taken on the surface of Venus.


The Soviet Union's Venera 14 arrived at Venus four days after its twin. Though the color panoramic pictures it transmitted showed the lander to have set down on a 500 m (1600 ft) hill, with small foothills in the distance, the atmospheric pressure it recorded (93.5 times that of Earth, compared to 89.5 reported by Venera 13) suggested that it reached a substantially lower altitude than Venera 13. Venera 14 performed the second soil analysis on Venus, drilling a 30 mm deep hole and excavating about one cubic centimeter of soil, which was found to be similar to basaltic rocks on Earth that are formed at mid-ocean ridges by underwater volcanoes.


Last Update: 16 Jun 2011 (AMB)

Credit: NASA (Image originally taken by a Soviet spacecraft)