Venus
Introduction
Venus is the second planet in the solar
system. Venus probably got its name from the Greek for being the brightest
planet visible in the sky. In Greek mythology Venus (Aphrodite) was the god
of love and beauty. Venus had been discovered a very long time ago. This was
probably because it was the brightest object in the sky apart from the sun
and the moon. Venus also , just like Mercury, was called two different
names: Eosphorus or Lucifer when it appeared as the morning star and
Hesperus when it appeared as the evening star.
Venus
shown without the clouds
Venus
shown with the clouds
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Fact File
Distance from the sun: 108,200,000 km
Diameter: 12,103.6 km
Mass: 4.86924 kg
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Explorations of Venus
Unlike Mercury which has had only one spacecraft visitor, Venus has had close to
twenty spacecrafts. The first one was the Mariner 2 in 1962. Others include
Pioneer Venus, Venera 7, Venera 9 and the Magellan. Quite a few of the unmanned
space crafts that have visited Venus have resulted stranded in Earth's orbit.
These include: 1VA - 1, 2MV-1 - 2, 2MV-2 - 1, 3MV-1 - 5, V-67 - 2, V-70 -, 3V. *
All the missions to Venus have either been from USA or Russia (USSR at that
time).
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Space Craft Fact file
1) Name: Mariner 2
Launch: August 27 1962
From: USA
Intention: Flyby
Result: First successful planetary mission found that Venus has small magnetic
field.
2) Name: Magellan
Launch: May 4 1989
From: USA
Intention: Orbit
Result: High resolution radar mapping
3) Name: Pioneer Venus
Launch: May 20 1978
From: USA Intention: Orbit
Result: Radar mapping, photo study of clouds, operated for 14 years!
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Earth vs. Venus
Venus has one of the most confusing day and year ratio and lengths in the whole
solar system. One day in Venus is about 243 Earth days. The most bizzare thing
though is that its year is shorter than its day. Venus is often called Earth’s
sister planet. This is because they have many things in common: ·Venus is almost
the same size as Earth being only a little bit smaller. (95% of Earth’s diameter
and 80% of Earth’s mass) ·Earth and Venus have surfaces that have not been
damaged by craters. ·Both planets have densities and chemical compositions that
are very much similar.
Surface Area Comparison:
| Earth | Venus | |
| Surface Area | 510065600 km2 | 4.60×108 km2 (0.902 Earths) |
| Equatorial radius | 6,378.137 km | 6,051.9 km (0.95 Earths) |
| Mass | 5.9742×1024 kg | 4.8685×1024 kg (0.815 Earths) |
| Mean density | 5,515.3 kg/m³ | 5.204 g/cm3 |
| Gravity | 9.780 1 m/s² | 8.87 m/s2 |
Atmosphere Composition
Comparison:
| Earth | Venus | |
| Nitrogen | 78.08 % | ~3.5% |
| Water vapor | Trace | 002% |
| Carbon dioxide | 0.038 % | ~96.5% |
| Argon | 0.93 % | .007% |
| Others | -- | .0007% Neon |
| Others | -- | .0012% Helium |
| Others | 20.94 % Oxygen (varies with climate) | .0017% Carbon monoxide |
After discovering all these similarities many people started wondering whether
Venus would look much like Earth underneath her dense clouds. But when the
planet was explored did they find out how terribly wrong they were. Venus in
fact may be the worst ever place to live in the whole solar system.
Facts on Atmosphere:
1.Venus’ atmosphere mainly consists of carbon dioxide. This means that there is
a incredible Greenhouse Effect. The planet is also closer to the sun than the
Earth, thus hotter. This gives an incredible temperature, close to
2.Venus may once have had water but all would have boiled away leaving the
planet dry and fuming.
Venus’ surface is covered by numerous gently rolling plains. Likewise there are
many huge depressions such as Atalanta Planitia, Guinevere Planitia, Lavinia
Planitia. In these depressions there are two large highlands. In the northern
hemisphere there is the Ishtar Terra which is roughly the size of Australia. In
the center of Ishtar Terra there is a high plateau called the Lakshmi Planum
which is surrounded by high mountains. In the southern hemisphere there is
another large highland called the Aphrodite Terra which is approximately the
size of South America.
Did You Know?
1.Venus’ molten iron core is like that of Earth’s. It is about 3000 km in
diameter.
2.There is no magnetic field around Venus probably because of its slow rotation.
3.Moons of Venus are, just like Mercury, yet to be discovered.
4.Venus is the 6th largest planet in the solar system.
5.Venus has an eccentry of less than 1%.
6.Venus passed directly between the sun and Earth on 8, June 2004. Such an event
is extremely rare. The last one happened in 1882 and the next will happen in
2012. But the one after that will happen in 2117.
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