Venusian surface is like something out of DanteΓÇÖs Inferno. The planet is nearly entirely covered by volcanic structures: enormous craters, volcanic mountains many times higher than Mount Everest, giant lava flows, and twisted geological formations caused by volcanic activity. The Soviet Venera missions, which landed on the planetΓÇÖs surface, revealed a pervading red-orange light, the result of sunlight filtering through clouds of sulfuric acid. The dark regions in this image are volcanic mountains and craters surrounded by lava flows. The light area stretching across the central region is Aphrodite Terra, a huge moun- tain range about the size of South America, which runs near the
