Venus is the brightest
object in the night sky, other than our moon. It can be bright enough
to be seen during the day. Venus is one of the most inhospitable
places imaginable. The temperature on Venus is like a furnace at
880 °F. It is the second closet planet to the sun. Venus
can come closer to Earth than any other planet within 25 million
miles. It is the sister planet to Earth. Venus was known as a
beautiful planet until a spacecraft visited there. It turned out
that Venus was veiled with a white blanket of clouds, causing it
to be especially bright. The clouds consist of strong sulfuric acid.
Tremendous lightning strikes the surface of the planet constantly.
The planet has an almost
perfectly circular orbit around the Sun, at a distance of 67.2
million miles. Venus is quite unusual because it rotates from east to
west, which is the opposite direction of the other eight planets'
rotations. A year on Venus is equal to 224.7 earth days and a
day is equal to 116 Earth days. The dense atmosphere surrounding
Venus consists of unbreathable carbon dioxide gas. The atmosphere on
Venus is able to let in the Sun's heat but unable to let it escape.
The result is a "greenhouse effect." The pressure of its atmosphere
on the surface is about 90 times that of the Earth's atmospheric
pressure.
Deadly Cloud
Venus has a very deadly
atmosphere unsuitable for life. It is made up of sulfuric acid
mists and other toxic substances. Sulfuric clouds lie about 70 kilometers
above Venus's surface, at a temperature of -45°C. The clouds
are swept around Venus every four days by a wind which is blowing about
350 kilometers and hour.
Images of Venus
This is an image of one
crater found on Venus.
http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/solarsys/Venus.htm#views
http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/solarsys/Venus.htm#views
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