Channeling Venus: Feminine, Fiery, and Fearless The ancient Romans could easily see seven bright objects in the sky: the Sun, the Moon, and five of the brightest planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They named objects after gods, with Venus, the third brightest object after the Sun and Moon, named after the Roman goddess of love. This cloud-swaddled planet boasts surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. While similar to Earth in size, it does a couple things differently. Venus spins backwards, has a day longer than its year, and the tips of its clouds whip around as fast as 224 miles (360 km) per hour. Nevertheless, three new missions are set to explore it: VERITAS, DAVINCI, and @EuropeanSpaceAgency’s EnVision. This newly processed image revisits the original data captured in 1974 by our Mariner 10 spacecraft, with modern image processing software by @NASAJPL engineer Kevin M. Gill. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech #NASA#InternationalWomensDay#Venus#Planets#SolarSystem#Mariner#NASAJPL#ShineBright