Part of the Soviet Venera program to explore Venus, Venera 13 launched on Oct. 30, 1981. Though not the first mission to return images of the venusian surface – Venera 9 had achieved that in 1975 – Venera 13 was the first to send color imagery. The panoramic shots it returned were golden hued due to the sunlight filtering through the atmosphere, and showed a dusty surface strewn with rock slabs. Venera also achieved a first when it sent the sounds of wind on Venus’ surface back to Earth – the first audio recordings from the surface of a planet other than Earth. Venera 13 lasted about two hours in Venus’ extreme conditions before shutting down, during which it returned data from a wide array of instruments, including an analysis of the chemical makeup of the surface.
