Venus is more than what meets the eye. What meets the eye is a brown swirled dust planet. Underneath these clouds, there is an amazing landscape. Venus has volcanoes spewing lava, and red volcanic rock covering the planet.

Layers

If you have ever seen a picture of Venus, you usually just see its atmosphere. Venus' atmosphere is considered another layer of the planet because it's so thick. Under the atmosphere there is a rocky surface just like Earth. When you go beneath Venus' atmosphere you find a rocky outer layer is called the crust. Scientists think that Venus' crust is 10-30 miles deep. Beneath the crust, is the mantle. The mantle is made up of heavier rock and is the largest layer. Under the mantle is the core, which is made up of mostly iron and nickel. Scientists also think the core could be made of molten lava.

Atmosphere

Venus has a very strange atmosphere. Venus' atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide, it lacks oxygen, and it only has a little nitrogen. In order for humans to live we need nitrogen and oxygen. Carbon dioxide makes the atmosphere heavy, which makes the atmospheric pressure 90 times stronger than Earth’s atmospheric pressure.

Green House Effect

Earth's atmosphere gives us oxygen. Earth’s atmosphere acts like a greenhouse, it lets heat in, but it keeps some of the heat from later escaping. This makes our Earth warmer. Scientists think that since we are putting heavy gasses into the air, it is creating a "green house effect." When I say heavy gasses, I mean that the gasses are heavy compared to other gasses. The green house effect is where heat goes through the clouds and atmosphere and bounces off the surface. The heat then tries to escape, but the clouds and atmosphere trap the heat making the planet warmer.

Venus also has the green house effect. The only difference is that Venus' is really bad. Since Venus has so much carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, lots of heat comes in but very little escapes. This makes the planet get as hot as 900° F. It stays this hot both day and night because the atmosphere acts like a really thick blanket, keeping all the heat in. Scientists think that if we are able to learn about the green house effect on Venus, we can help our planet with its green house effect problem.

Surface

Venus and Earth have very different surfaces. More than two-thirds of Earth’s surface is covered with water. The other third is covered with land areas. On Venus there isn't a trace of water. If there ever was water or oceans on Venus, they would have evaporated by now because of its extreme temperature. Venus is producing less volcanoes, which were releasing many of the heavy gasses creating the green house effect. We still won't be able to live on Venus, though, because its surface temperature is still 800-900 degrees F.

Orbit

When Venus travels around the sun, its orbit is almost a complete circle. Venus' orbit around the sun is just a little like an oval. Since Venus is 67 million miles away from the sun, it takes 225 earth days to travel around the sun.

Venus rotates around its axis just like the other planets. The thing that is different is how Venus rotates on its axis and how fast. Venus takes 243 earth days to rotate once. One Venus day is longer than 1 Venus year. It's a good thing we don't live on Venus because then we would have really long school days.

All planets rotate to the east except one, Venus. Venus is the opposite of every other planet, it rotates to the west. This means that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

Venus’ Basic Facts

Conclusion

Venus, will probably never be traveled on by humans because the temperature doesn’t get below 850° F. If we set foot on Venus, we would able be crushed by its atmospheric pressure. There is also no water or oxygen on Venus.

Head, James. "Venus." World Book 2001, 2001.

Kerrod, Robin. Mercury and Venus. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2000.

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All pictures courtesy of NASA unless otherwise noted