Venus' Ocean of Air and Clouds

Venus’ appearance is deceptive. The history of scientific research about Venus is full of mistaken assumptions that are sooner or later refuted by new observations. Ancient civilizations wrongly interpreted the morning and evening stars as 2 stars. Giovanni Cassini claimed to have observed moons. More recently, scientists assumed that Venus’ reflective clouds prevented solar energy from reaching its surface, leaving it cold. Its surface is actually hotter than Mercury’s surface. Even today, sophisticated numerical models that work to predict the behavior of atmospheres on other planets are unable to reproduce even basic properties of the atmosphere of Venus.