The atmosphere of Venus is so alien compared to Earth, yet it's our sister planet. We've got the same size, the same materials basically and almost the same gravity.

It shows that the instrument is really working beautifully. It bodes well for the rest of the mission.

It's like testing a new airplane or car. Before you go off joyriding with it, you want to make sure everything works.

Unlike the hazy, broad, global bands of clouds regularly seen in Saturn's upper atmosphere, many of the deeper clouds appear to be isolated, localized features.

Venus has a lot of lessons to teach the Earth about how things could go awry.