Earth's Evil Twin

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Science Documentary hosted by Dominic Frisby, published by National Geographic in 2009 - English narration

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Earth's Evil Twin (2009) Venus is a seething planet with a fiery atmosphere and incessant, hurricane-force winds beating a blistering volcanic surface. Could Earth be heading for a similar fate? The Babylonians called it "Ishtar". To the Mayans, it was known as "Chak ek", which translates as "great star". Some ancient astronomers believed it was two separate objects: a "morning star" and an "evening star". Venus is the brightest object in the sky except for the Sun and Moon. As such, the second planet from the Sun has fascinated humankind for millennia. Europe's Venus Express spacecraft made its rendezvous with our nearest planetary neighbour in April to study it from orbit. The mission aims to shed light on an enduring mystery about this world: how a planet so similar to our own in size, mass, and composition has evolved so differently over the last 4.6 billion years. Venus has undergone runaway greenhouse warming, whereby trapped solar radiation has heated the planet's surface to an average temperature of 467C (872F) - hot enough to melt lead. A dense atmosphere, composed chiefly of carbon dioxide (CO2), generates a surface pressure 90 times greater than that on Earth.