This radar map of the northern hemisphere of Venus shows how the surface might look if we could peer through the planet's thick atmosphere. The surface is portrayed in shades of orange similar to those seen by the Soviet Venera probes that landed on Venus in the 1970s and 1980s. The North Pole is at the center of the image. The bright region just below the center is Maxwell Montes, the highest mountain chain on Venus. This image was created using radar data from the Magellan spacecraft.
Image courtesy of NASA/JPL.