If Mars were the popular kid in school, Venus would be the weird nerd sitting in the corner, largely ignored.

Despite its image, Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the sun and the moon, its orbit taking it closer to Earth than any other planet in the solar system. It has nearly the same mass and size as Earth, but being closer to our star it experiences nearly twice as much heating from the sun .

However, instead of having a climate that is just a warmer version of Earth’s, Venus’s surface and atmosphere are …