VENUS
FACTS:
•
Venus is known as Earths' twin sister because of its similar size and proximity to each
other.
•
Its atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide.
•
Venus rotates so slowly that it orbits the sun faster than it can make one whole rotation on
its axis. In other words, Venus has a longer day than year.
•
Venus is the most widely explored planet aside from our own Earth. Numerous space
probes have been sent to Venus to gather data and some have landed on the surface.
•
Venus is the brightest planet viewed from Earth.
•
The planet rotates from East to West. The only other planet that does this is Uranus.
•
Named after The Roman Goddess of love and beauty.
•
The diameter of Venus is about 7,520 miles which is about 400 miles smaller than that of
Earth.
ATMOSPHERE
•
The atmosphere of Venus is very hot and thick.
•
Venus' atmosphere consists almost entirely (97%) of carbon dioxide.
•
The temperature at the surface is 740 K (467 °C, 872 °F).
•
The main atmospheric gases are carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
•
Venusian clouds are thick and are composed of sulfur dioxide and droplets of sulfuric
acid.
•
Venus has mountains that are higher than Earth. Maat Mons is more than 5 miles high.
COMPOSITION
•
Venus is often referred to as Earth’s twin planet (evil twin planet is more like it, when you
consider the scorching temperatures).
•
Venus is almost the same size, mass, gravity and overall composition of the Earth.
•
Has core of metal, a mantle of liquid rock, and an outer crust of solid rock.
•
Scientists have no direct knowledge about Venus composition. Here on Earth, scientists
use seismometers to study how seismic waves from earthquakes propagate through the
planet.
•
Since the surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead, and no spacecraft have survived
on the surface for longer than a few hours, there just isn’t the information about Venus’
internal composition.
VENUS MOONS?
•
Venus is one of the few planets in our solar system to have no moons or other satellites
orbiting it.
•
There are a lot of theories about why Venus is missing a moon. One controversial theory
suggests that Venus is not really a planet, but an enormous piece of Jupiter that was
severed from the planet by a comet or meteor.
•
There are myths in many ancient cultures on Earth that support the theory that a very
large object blazed a trail across the sky from Jupiter's space to the space now occupied
by Venus.
•
Venus and Mercury are the only two planets that do not have a single moon in orbit about
them.
ORBIT AND ROTATION
•
Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 108 million kilometers.
•
Completes an orbit every 224.65 days.
•
Although all planetary orbits are elliptical, Venus is the closest to circular, with an
eccentricity of less than 0.01.
•
All the planets of the Solar System orbit in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed from
above the Sun's north pole. Most planets also rotate counter-clockwise, but Venus rotates
clockwise (called "retrograde" rotation) once every 243 Earth days.
•
Venus may have formed from the solar nebula with a different rotation period and
obliquity, reaching to its current state because of chaotic spin changes caused by
planetary perturbations and tidal effects on its dense atmosphere.
OBSERVATIONS
•
Venus is always brighter than any star (apart from the Sun).
•
The greatest luminosity, apparent magnitude −4.9, [occurs during crescent phase when it
is near the Earth.
•
The planet is bright enough to be seen in the middle of the day when the sky is very clear,
and the planet can be easy to see when the Sun is low on the horizon.
•
Venus "overtakes" the Earth every 584 days as it orbits the Sun. As it does so, it changes
from the "Evening star", visible after sunset, to the "Morning star", visible before sunrise.
•
As the brightest point-like object in the sky, Venus is a commonly misreported
"unidentified flying object".
•
U.S. President Jimmy Carter reported having seen a UFO in 1969, which later analysis
suggested was probably the planet.
•
Countless other people have mistaken Venus for something more exotic.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
•
www.aerospaceguide.net/planet/planetvenus.html
•
www.nineplanets.org/venus.html
•
www.space.com/44-venus-second-planet-from-the-sun-brightest-plan
•
www.solarsystem.nasa.gov
•
www.planetfacts.net/Venus-Facts.html
•
www.planetfacts.org/planet-venus-facts/