Carl Sagan on Planet Venus

Description: Sagan was central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of the planet Venus.In the early 1960s, no one knew for certain the basic conditions of Venus' surface and Sagan listed the possibilities in a report later depicted for popularization in a Time-Life book, Planets - his own view was that the planet was dry and very hot, as opposed to the balmy paradise others had imagined.He had investigated radio emissions from Venus and concluded that there was a surface temperature of 500 °C (900 °F). As a visiting scientist to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he contributed to the first Mariner missions to Venus, working on the design and management of the project. Mariner 2 confirmed his views on the conditions of Venus in 1962.This video shows an interview with him before the first missions to Venus in 1960 or 1961.