:: Venus

Venus is the second planet from the sun, and the seventh largest. It is Earth's neighbour and has been observed by satellites.We sometime call Venus the Evening star because at night (a long time ago) people thought it was a star and it was the first to shine. Now we know Venus is not a star but a planet.

Quick facts

• Moons: none
• Distance from the sun: 108 200 000 kms.
• Diameter: 12104 kms.
• Duration of revolution: 224,7 days.
• Duration of rotation: 243 days.

Venus's rotation is so slow that a Venus year is smaller than a Venus day.

At some point, astronomers thought Venus was divided in 2.

Surface

About 85% of Venus's surface is covered by volcanic plains covered by layers of lava. There are a lot of craters on Venus but still very few compared to Mercury and the Moon.

Spacecrafts

The first spacecraft to observe Venus was Mariner 2. Since then other spacecrafts have orbited Venus. A few landed on the planet's surface, were able to send a few pictures back to Earth and melted.

Orbit

Venus's orbit is the one that is the less elliptical. It is the only planet to turn in a different direction.

Atmosphere

Venus's atmosphere is composed of: 90.5 % carbon dioxide, 3.5% nitrogen and other gases.

Venus's clouds contain a little water vapor, but we have little reason to think that water in any form exists on the planet itself. We think that most of the water that initially existed on Venus evaporated, when the Sun started to get warmer, and moved up to the upper atmosphere. This created a greengas effect, making the planet even warmer.

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