The First and Only Photos From Venus - What Did We See? (4K)

Only four spacecraft have ever returned photographs from the surface of Venus. Our neighbouring planet doesn’t make it easy, below the clouds blistering heat and crushing pressures quickly destroy most landers. But, in 1975 and 1982, 4 of the Soviet Union’s Venera probes captured our only photos of Venus’ surface. The Venera landers scanned the surface back and forth to create panoramic images of their surroundings. They revealed yellow skies and cracked, desolate landscapes that were both alien and familiar, views of a world that may have once been like Earth before experiencing catastrophic climate change. Here are the only photos we have of the surface of Venus.

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[VSPACE]

Did you know that most people have no idea what the far side of Pluto looks like? Dive into the unknown and discover the breathtaking secrets of this distant world in my latest video!
Trust me, you won't want to miss these stunning visuals and fascinating insights!

[brucestorey]

Hats off to the scientists who made the Venera probes. They were well ahead of their time and gave the world these intriguing pics.

[kdiggedydawg]

I've lost count of how many times I've looked these images up and just stared in awe.
Colour photos from the surface of another planet all the way back in the 80's is really impressive.

[PhinneusPrune]

The Soviet Union never got the credit they deserve for getting photos from the Planets surface back in 82. The heat and pressure on Venus's surface doomed any probes chance of survival and the fact that they were able to land and take such stunning photo's on that planets surface should be applauded. We see Mars and a lot of people take those photo's for granted. But as great as an achievement all of the rovers on Mars are and were. These photo's dwarf those in every way.

[Squidgyy_]

Getting pictures back from Mars is an extraordinary thing in itself but getting some back from Venus 40+ years ago is absolutely unbelievable

[EnragedByCorn]

Such high quality photos of an alien planet taken nearly forty years ago is just awe inspiring.

[DeSinc]

One of them even took an audio recording of the surface. You could hear some ambient noises from the actual surface of venus while the probe drilled into the rock for its tasks. I find when combined with audio, it becomes much more real to me and I feel like I can almost picture myself standing on the surface. If you like this stuff I highly recommend searching it up, it's on YT.

[thisismonitor]

I used to look at these photos as a kid, as well as the ones that came earlier in the mid 70s from the Viking probes.
What a lot of people don't realize about the Venera probes is that to take the photos, they needed to use a diamond window because glass just couldn't take it. It's pretty cool :)

[Nancygertu]

I've never felt like this before but it's really depressing to think about how all these planets, giants in the space, are completely empty... I can't imagine how scary it would be to be there alone...

[DaveTexas]

I remember hearing about these missions and seeing the photos back in the ‘80s. It amazes me that we haven’t had much more technologically advanced probes land on Venus and transmit more photos of the surface in all the years since.

[nikhilpachauri]

These images showcase the hard work put in by the scientists from Soviet Union. Imagine if the best brains in the world work together without much fight, how much more we can uncover about our solar system.

[danielj]

From light bulb to Venus landing in a few decades. Amazing.

[jakubkrcma]

Space exploration is one of the areas where all people should cooperate. It pushes all of us forward. ❤

[cupriferouscatalyst]

This is absolutely mindblowing, I can't believe I didn't even know we had probes on Venus at one point

[VSPACE]

Sometimes you've got to look back 40 years or so to find the best photos. Or, in this case, the only photos! What did you think of these images? Pretty impressive, right? Let me know below! Have a great day! V

[stevendimmock]

Fabulous video, thank you. I'm 63 years old and not in the best of health. I don't regret anything in my life, but I do regret not being able to be around when all the mysteries of our universe are solved for us. Young people, you have my envy!

[ronaryel]

The Venera program was an incredible achievement and all about innovation, learning from experience and hard, precise work. NASA's probes (like Mariner 5)did help by collecting data from orbit; the new upcoming probes also benefit from both Venera and the Magellan Venus Radar Mapper. Magellan was a spacecraft designed by JPL in Pasadena and equipped with Synthetic Aperture Radar, designed and built by Hughes Aircraft Company's Space and Communications Group (I played a role on the procurement side). In 1989, Magellan mapped 99% of Venus' surface in great detail. (Today, that Hughes unit, along with Radar Systems Group, belongs to Boeing Defense, Space and Security.)

[billrossignon]

This might be some of the best stuff the Soviet space program ever did. 900 degree heat and pressure that would crush a sub and they landed and got the photos. Well done.

[indyracingnut]

The Soviets may have been our political enemies, but they had some damn good engineering skills also.

[spacebatstuckonearth]

The 1982 color picture of another planet, I'm speechless how advanced they were so long back