Synergies between Venus & Exoplanetary Observations

TL;DR

This paper explores how studying Venus and exoplanets can mutually inform each other, highlighting recent advancements and future prospects in planetary science and exoplanet exploration.

Contribution

It provides a comparative review of Venus and exoplanetary science, emphasizing how insights from one can benefit the other and discussing upcoming missions.

Findings

Venus research has historically been limited compared to Mars.

Exoplanet science has rapidly advanced since 1995.

Upcoming missions will enhance understanding of both Venus and exoplanets.

Abstract

In this chapter we examine how our knowledge of present day Venus can inform terrestrial exoplanetary science and how exoplanetary science can inform our study of Venus. In a superficial way the contrasts in knowledge appear stark. We have been looking at Venus for millennia and studying it via telescopic observations for centuries. Spacecraft observations began with Mariner 2 in 1962 when we confirmed that Venus was a hothouse planet, rather than the tropical paradise science fiction pictured. As long as our level of exploration and understanding of Venus remains far below that of Mars, major questions will endure. On the other hand, exoplanetary science has grown leaps and bounds since the discovery of Pegasus 51b in 1995, not too long after the golden years of Venus spacecraft missions came to an end with the Magellan Mission in 1994. Multi-million to billion dollar/euro exoplanet focused spacecraft missions such as JWST, and its successors will be flown in the coming decades. At the same time, excitement about Venus exploration is blooming again with a number of confirmed and proposed missions in the coming decades from India, Russia, Japan, the European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In this chapter, we review what is known and what we may discover tomorrow in complementary studies of Venus and its exoplanetary cousins.