Europe will join the space party at Planet Venus

Esa made the announcement one week after its American counterpart, Nasa, chose two Venus projects of its own, known as Veritas and Davinci+

The destination isn't the only overlap; Europe and the US will both be contributing to each other's efforts in the form of hosted instrumentation.

"All three of the missions are highly complementary," Dr Philippa Mason, an Envision science team-member from Imperial College London, UK, told BBC News.

The trio will start launching from the end of this decade for observation campaigns that run through the early to mid-2030s.

Venus is often described (unfairly) as Earth's "evil twin". Almost the same size as our home planet, it's hellishly hot and dry. It's nothing like the lush blue orb on which we live.

Dr Colin Wilson from Oxford University, UK, pondered: "Venus is our nearest neighbour and the only Earth-sized planet we can visit.

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