Which journal published Sagan’s 1961 article on Venus’s atmosphere? It was published in the journal Science.
The article was titled “The Planet Venus: Recent Observations Shed Light on the Atmosphere, Surface, and Possible Biology of the Nearest Planet.” It appeared on March 24, 1961, in volume 133, issue 3456, pages 849–858. The paper synthesized the early space-age understanding of Venus and considered what its atmosphere might reveal about the planet’s surface.
Sagan argued against the popular image of Venus as a warm, wet paradise. He helped develop the view that Venus possessed a dense carbon-dioxide atmosphere and an intensely hot surface, ideas later confirmed by spacecraft observations and atmospheric measurements.
The title can cause confusion because Sagan also published Venus research in astronomy and planetary-science journals. This particular 1961 article, however, is the Science paper. Science is an interdisciplinary journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, not the similarly named Scientific American magazine.