People,
Don't believe everything that Never A Straight Answer (NASA) tells
you.
From page 175 of the book-
Many space researchers shared these views regarding the Venus
environment. However, at the same time, a very different school of
thought had developed within the orthodox scientific community. It
was based on an astronomical report by Cornell H. Mayer, following a
study at the Naval Research Laboratory in 1956. Mayer had made some
calculated measurements of the upper atmosphere of Venus, and deduced
that the temperature was more than 550 degrees. It was known that the
upper atmosphere contained an appreciable amount of carbon dioxide,
and conservative scientists predictably envisioned a colossal "green-
house" environment for Venus. Their theory provided that the incoming
sunlight reaching the surface was converted to longer thermal
wavelengths of energy. Then, trapped by the abundant carbon dioxide,
these thermal wavelengths could not escape the atmosphere. Therefore,
they reasoned, the surface should even be hotter. The orthodox
scientists quickly escalated the idea of a hot planet to
unprecedented levels, and assigned boiling surface temperatures to
Venus. Textbooks were rewritten along these lines.
A school child certainly could not contest this theory that was
taught as fact. But for a long time during this period, there was
much debate in the scientific community regarding this simple,
unproven theory. There were questions as to whether the upper level
atmosphere readings had anything to do with temperatures radiating
from the surface, or whether they were completely independent from
surface conditions. Were the temperature readings actually indicating
heat, or were they a measurement of kinetic energy in the upper
atmosphere bands due to activation of atomic particles by the solar
wind?
Years afterwards, space probes launched around Earth found that our
planet had varying temperature bands in our atmosphere. At 100 miles
altitude, the temperature was found to be 700°. At 150 miles, 1260°.
At 400 miles, 1300°. These thermal bands were identified as regions
of kinetic temperatures, and not heat as we commonly understand it.
Since it is not "boiling" on the Earth's surface, it is now logical
to conclude that the orthodox theory of Venus was based on an
inaccurate interpretation of Mayer's ambiguous findings.