There's a lot more to be learned about other planets in our solar system. Venus is an interesting subject. Scientists at NASA have sent a rocket called VeSpR with an onboard telescope to study the planet's atmosphere. The goal: to study if water ever existed on its surface.

Scientists believed that Venus might have once held enough water to cover the entire planet. But all that data was from back in 1978. So we need some updated information.

The telescope will study the planet's atmosphere to confirm or disprove its levels of hydrogen and deuterium. Deuterium is the heavier hydrogen isotope that might have stayed in Venus' atmosphere after the sun's UV rays broke apart regular hydrogen atoms. The telescope will compare how much of these are present so more theories on how much water might have existed on the planet and more important, what happened to it.

Water, is the thing that as far as we know allows life to exist in our universe. It may just be the beginning of an answer to whether we are alone in the universe.

[NASA]