Planet Venus
Written by Abby Cessna
Venus captured by Magellan.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is located between Mercury and the Earth. The planet has been known to exist since ancient times. Aside from the Sun and the Moon, it is the brightest object in the sky. Although the ancients knew about Venus, some of the cultures thought it was two separate celestial objects – the evening star and the morning star. A Greek astronomer was the first one to realize that the evening star and the morning star were actually one object. Many cultures have attributed the planet with their respective goddess of love and beauty. Venus is the Roman name for that goddess. The Babylonians named the planet Ishtar, and the Greeks called it Aphrodite.
Even though Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System. It is hotter because of its atmosphere. Venus has a thick, toxic atmosphere that is mostly composed of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. These gases create a kind of greenhouse effect trapping the heat and turning the planet into a raging furnace. The surface of the planet is also covered by many volcanoes, some of them very large. Both its temperature and surface geography has led to Venus being compared to Hell.
Venus is also often called Earth’s twin because it is very similar in size. They also have similar densities and are chemically similar. However, Venus is different from our own planet in almost every other way because of its toxic atmosphere. The temperatures on Venus are almost unbelievably hot; the surface reaches 460°C on average. In comparison, the average temperature on Earth is only 14°C, and our planet does not get much hotter than 50°C.
Venus has been explored fairly extensively with probes. Originally, many writers speculated that Venus was some kind of tropical paradise. However, that was proven false when scientists were finally able to photograph the barren planet. Although Venus appears to be yellow-white that is actually only because of its atmosphere.
Venus rotates slower than any of the planets in our Solar System. It takes the planet 243 Earth days to complete one rotation. One Venus day is actually less than a year on Venus – a year on Venus is only about 225 days long. Another interesting fact about Venus is that it rotates backwards compared to the other planets in our Solar System. You can usually this very bright planet with the naked eye.
Universe Today has articles on history of Venus and facts about Venus.
You should also take a look at Venus and study suggests oceans on ancient Venus.
Astronomy Cast has an episode on Venus you will enjoy.
Filed under: Astronomy
Tags: planet venus, Venus
