Atmosphere of Venus
Written by Fraser Cain
Although scientists consider Venus to the twin of the Earth in many ways, the atmosphere of Venus is exactly the opposite. Instead of the life-giving, protective atmosphere we have here on Earth, the atmosphere on Venus is hostile to life in every way.
The atmosphere composition of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide – more than 98%. And it's a crushing amount of atmosphere. If you could stand on the surface of Venus, you would experience 93 times as much pressure as you would on Earth. In fact, you would have to travel more than a kilometer underneath the surface of the ocean to experience the kinds of pressure you'd see on Venus.
And that's just the beginning. The incredibly thick carbon dioxide atmosphere causes an intense greenhouse effect on Venus. Temperatures can get as high as 467°C (740 K) on the surface of the planet Venus.
There are clouds of hydrogen sulfide on Venus, and these create rains of sulfuric acid that eat away anything unfortunately enough to be on the surface of Venus.
Even though conditions on the ground are horrendous, once you get to an altitude of about 50 km to 65 km above the planet, the atmospheric pressure and temperature become very similar to Earth. In fact, this is the most Earthlike place in the Solar System – even more than Mars.
Filed under: Astronomy
