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Venus and a newly discovered comet will cross paths in December. Will sparks fly?
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Venus and a newly discovered comet will cross paths in December. Will sparks fly?

Come December, Venus and a rare comet will nearly cross paths, with the planet crossing the comet's debris trail just three days after the icy body dashes by.

Science & Tech

Venus is Earth's twisted twin in so many ways, what about on the skywatching front?

Alas, stargazing isn't great from the Venusian surface: The thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere that blankets the planet means there's no catching a break in the clouds. But above those clouds — where, come to think of it, conditions are rather less lethal for human stargazers anyway — the view of the night sky might be pretty similar to that on Earth.

A skywatching session on Venus would require being, say, 35 to 40 miles (55 to 60 kilometers) above the surface, where the temperature and pressure are surprisingly Earthlike, Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis who focuses on Venus, told Space.com.

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"It is the only other place in the solar system where room temperature and pressure conditions are present and, potentially, an astronaut could stand on the railing of a gondola with a breathing apparatus on but otherwise in shirtsleeves," he said. Perhaps the stars would twinkle a little differently or the atmosphere would tinge meteors a different color, but the gist would be the same, he predicted.