Name
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- Venus was the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty, and the
planet was likely given this name because of its brightness in the
sky, often seen against the backdrop of sunrise or sunset.
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Discovery
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- Venus has been known since ancient times.
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Size & Mass
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Orbit
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Appearance
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| Magnitude |
-4.4 |
|
| Angular
size |
10' to 66' |
|
| Albedo |
0.65 |
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- Venus is easily seen with the naked eye, and can often be seen
as the brightest "star" in the sky at sunrise or
sunset. Venus is the brightest of the planets as seen from
Earth.
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Conditions
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| Temperature |
740 K |
|
| Atmosphere |
Mainly CO2,
90 atmospheres |
| Appearance |
Little terrain or relief,
but covered with many volcanic flows |
| Features |
Venus has several shield
volcano features, such as Sif Mons. |
- Even though twice as far from the Sun
as Mercury, Venus is
hotter. This is due to the fact that it has a thick
atmosphere of carbon dioxide that generates a very strong
"greenhouse effect", raising the temperature 400
degrees higher than would normally be present.
- The surface pressure is so high that only two space probes
have successfully landed there, and even then survived for only
about an hour.
- Venus' clouds are so thick that the surface cannot be seen
from Earth or by orbiting spacecraft. The Magellan
mission generated a detailed map of the surface of Venus using
radar, which penetrated the cloud layers and atmosphere.
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Moons/Rings
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- Venus has no moons or rings.
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Exploration
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- Venus was first explored by Mariner
2 and later by many other probes, including Pioneer
Venus and the Soviet Venera probes.
- Venus was most recently mapped by Magellan,
generating the largest amount data from any planetary mission to date.
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Interesting Facts
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- The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that light would bend by such a
large amount that you could nearly see directly behind you!
- Venus has clouds of sulfuric acid and its surface is hot enough to
melt lead.
- Venus is very similar to Earth is size and mass, yet so different in
climate mainly due to the thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. It
serves as a strong example of the dangers of an uncontrolled
greenhouse effect.
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Links
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