Sorry, I meant Venus.

Welcome to Venus.

Some say it's Earth's twin.

But this world

is nothing like home.

And you're about to experience

this scorching hot landscape

firsthand.

Your mission is to spend

five seconds

on this hellish planet.

Trust me, these are going to be

a very long five seconds.

Venus is the second planet

from the Sun

and our nearest neighbor.

At its closest approach,

Venus is a mere

40 million km (25 million mi)

away from us.

After just four months in space,

you'd finally be able

to witness this beautiful

but deadly planet up close.

Four and a half billion years ago,

Venus and Earth

formed in the same corner

of our Solar System.

This space rock

is about the same size

as Earth, and its gravity

is similar too.

But, unlike our home, the surface

situation on Venus is extreme.

We know this

because we’ve sent probes

to this scorching world.

Some probes orbited it,

some made a flyby.

And some even landed

on the surface of Venus.

But those didn’t last very long.

What happened to them?

Well, that’s what you’re about to find out.

Time to make your way

down to the surface.

Don't these clouds look beautiful?

Well, don't inhale them.

These yellowish bands

streaking across the sky

are clouds of sulfuric acid.

If you could only get

a whiff of them,

you'd smell

the reek of rotten eggs.

But to do that,

you'd need to remove your helmet,

and I definitely do not

recommend that.

At a height of 50 km (30 mi) above

the surface, visibility is poor.

You'd hardly be able to see anything.

The incredibly thick

atmosphere would block

views of this planet

and its tens of thousands

of volcanoes.

The atmosphere is mostly made up

of carbon dioxide.

And because it's so thick,

it traps heat on the planet's surface,

keeping it nice and toasty.

Just how toasty are we talking?

Oh, you are going to find out

the hard way.

As you descend another 15 km (10 mi),

the haze would begin to clear.

The world below would finally reveal itself.

A rust-colored surface covered

in mountains and volcanoes.

Looks like this

volcano is still active.

You’d fly around a little

to collect some samples

and take in the view.

Yep, the atmosphere

is mostly carbon dioxide

with traces of nitrogen.

That checks out.

OK, well, let's

see if you can land here.

This looks like the spot.

Mission control,

am I clear for landing?

Mission control?

Um, looks like there’s no signal.

Initiating the landing sequence

without clearance.

Fingers crossed.

Landing your spacecraft would kick up

clouds of dust that would take

several minutes to settle down

in the soupy atmosphere.

As it clears, you’d look up into the sky,

but you wouldn’t find the familiar

yellow circle of the Sun.

On Venus,

it always looks like dawn,

no matter what time of day it is.

That's because

the Venusian atmosphere

only lets about 10% of the sunlight

that hits it reach the surface.

But wait, what were we saying

earlier about the space probe

that landed on Venus?

Oh yeah, Venera 13.

This Soviet probe

made its fatal landing

back in 1981.

It survived the descent

and lasted for

a whopping 127 minutes.

That's longer

than any other spacecraft

that had made it to the surface.

But then, Venera 13 gave

way to the violent,

uninviting environment

of this hell.

It was likely crushed under extreme

pressure, or it melted.

But it's too late

to turn around now.

You've lived through

the one-hour-long landing,

and you're so close!

All you need to do to complete

your mission is to spend

five seconds out there.

Yes, out there.

In the most extreme environment

you've ever been to.

You made it!

You can hardly lift your arms.

Even though Venus

has about the same gravity

as Earth,

you'd be feeling the sheer

weight of its immensely dense air.

It would feel like

you were walking through water.

Very hot water.

And you'd be glad you were wearing so much protective gear.

A quick look at your thermometer would tell you

that it's a sweltering 475 °C (900 °F) out here.

That's hot enough to melt lead.

Your pressurized suit

would be working hard

to keep you safe.

Without it,

you'd be crushed

under all that pressure

before you could even

complete your mission.

This isn’t so bad after all.

Hey, if a spacecraft

could last over two hours

some 40 years ago,

well, you and your shiny new gear

can survive longer, right?

Venus is right here

for you to discover,

just take a few more steps.

Suddenly, something distracts you

from the first-ever firsthand human analysis

of Venus' surface conditions.

Your protective suit breaks.

The drastic pressure shift

would immediately make you feel

like you were deep underwater.

With an atmospheric pressure

90 times that of Earth,

Venus would be crushing you

from all directions.

At the same time,

you’d be struggling

to breathe in an atmosphere

without any oxygen.

Any the atmosphere

you did manage to inhale

would scald the inside of your mouth

and the top of your throat.

Unless you could scramble

very quickly back

to the safety of your spacecraft,

you'd be dead within seconds.

Hey, it could be worse.

High above you,

sulphuric acid clouds

would be raining acid.

But in this

unbearably hot environment,

the toxic rain wouldn’t

reach the surface.

It would evaporate

long before that.

So at least you wouldn't

have to worry about acid

dissolving your skin and bones.

That would be kind of gruesome.

You know, in hindsight,

maybe we shouldn't have sent you down

to explore this hellish surface.

We probably should’ve

terraformed Venus

into a more hospitable

planet first.

But that's a story

for another WHAT IF.