If you look to the west at sunset this weekend, you'll be seeing quite the celestial spectacle as Venus will be shining brightly.
On June 4th, our neighboring planet will be at its highest point in the sky leading to some out-of-this-world views. As a bonus, Mars will be shining nearby as a reddish point of light.
NASA has two unmanned missions planned within the decade to explore Venus and learn more about the planet. One of the missions, DAVINCI, will drop a probe to the surface of Venus to gather data and take up-close images to better understand the mysterious and extreme environment of our neighboring planet.
Giada Arney of NASA says one of the most enigmatic things about Venus is the fact that there are chemical clues suggesting that Venus was more Earth-like in the past.
"It may have had continents and oceans of liquid water, so we really want to understand what happened to Venus to change its fate so dramatically over time," Arney told ABC15.
These are set to be the first missions to Venus in almost thirty years. NASA is eager to learn more about how the planet formed and evolved.
