NASA. In the early 1970s, NASA sent Mariner 10 past Venus. In 1974, the probe returned the first close-up image of the planet. In this image, Venus has been color-enhanced to show what it would ...

The Facts. It is true that the image really does show the surface of Venus from the perspective of the Venera-13 lander—a Soviet-built spacecraft that landed on Venus' surface on March 1, 1982 ...

Even though Venus moves between the Earth and sun every 19.5 months, it becomes visible after sunset and before sunrise only around every eight years, according to EarthSky.