Venus Express, ESA's first mission to Venus, launched 2005

The European Space Agency's first probe to our sister planet, Venus Express (VEX), was launched November 9, 2005 to explore the planet's atmosphere.  It arrived the following April for a two-year mission, but it kept going.  The ESA extended the mission five times, the last in 2013 through 2015 but they lost contact with VEX in November 2014. 

Basically, she ran out of gas.  VEX probably succumbed to Venus' gravity and burned up in the atmosphere in January or February 2015.

This was the first mission to make observations of Venus over a long period of time.  Previous missions by the U.S. or the Soviet Union were landers who transmitted data for very short times before being destroyed by the planet's harsh conditions.

Perhaps the data sent to Earth for eight and a half years will give us an idea of how the Venusian atmoshpere became such a runaway greenhouse effect, which in turn will help us contribute to our study of climate change on Earth.

Venus is hotter and colder than Earth

The European Space Agency's Venus Express reached the second rock from the sun back in 2006 and spent 8 years exploring the planet from orbit.  It far outlasted its expected life of 500 days, sending back a wealth of data before burning up in the atmosphere.  One of the most surprising finds is the polar regions of Venus are much colder than previously thought.

In a technique known as "aerobraking", the Venus Express used Venus' atmosphere to slow down and take measurements at the same time.  The spacecraft orbited at 130-140 km above the polar regions, which had never been explored before in this manner.  Temperatures in this area are as low as -170° C, colder than anywhere on Earth, while temperatures at the equator are over 850° F.



http://sci.esa.int/venus-express/57735-venus-express-swansong-experiment-sheds-light-on-venus-polar-atmosphere/