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When attempting to categorize the state of our knowledge about the planet Venus one must choose what to compare it to in order to develope a solid answer. Do we compare it to how much we know about the Earth? The Sun? Mars? Depending on which you choose you will come up with very different answers with numerous points of view.

Compared to the knowledge we have about the Earth, we know very little about Venus but compared to Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and the other planets we know a great amount about the fiery planet. Comparing our knowledge of Venus to the knowledge of the Sun is a little more difficult because the Sun plays such a major role in our everyday life that we should just naturally know more about it; which we do but if the Sun played less of a part in our life, we would know as much? This question is rhetorical as there is no true answer to it, but the question of what is the state of our knowledge on Venus is a totally different subject.

Taking into account these comparisons above and the rooms full of data, images, and statistics that are scattered across the globe on Venus, this author has to stick with the stance that the state of our knowledge on Venus is okay. It could definitely be better; which it will in the future; but it could be a lot worse. We could know as little about Venus as we do about Pluto; which is virtually nothing.

Taking Pluto into consideration; we know very little about this orb of ice that it was downgraded from a planet a couple of years ago. Yes, that's right, if you didn't know Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet by the science community; a shock to most of the regular Joes on the planet. This brings up the question of is it truly a planet? Well luckily it is rather clear that Venus is a planet and compared to Pluto we know an incredible amount of information about our "sister" planet.

The Venera series provided unquestionable results on the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and hostile conditions of the planet. Magellan and Pioneer-Venus built upon this knowledge and wowed the world with amazing images of the surface that at the time were better than those that we possessed of our own planet. In a nut shell the state of our knowledge about Venus is at an acceptable level; for now; but the future will only open doors previously not even known to exist.

Learn more about this author, Robert Freeman.
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