Profile:
Mass: 4,867,320,000,000,000 billion kg (0.815 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 12,104 km
Polar Diameter: 12,104 km
Equatorial Circumference: 38,025 km
Known Moons: none
Notable Moons: none
Orbit Distance: 108,209,475 km (0.73 x Earth's Distance to the Sun)
Orbit Period: 224.70 Earth days
Surface Temperature: 462 °C
Missions:
• Akatsuki/Planet-C (2010)
ISAS Venus Orbiter
• Venus Express (2005)
ESA Venus Orbiter
• Magellan (1989-1994)
NASA Venus Radar Mapping Mission
• Pioneer Venus (1978-1992)
NASA Orbiter/Probes to Venus
• Galileo (1990)
Venus flyby during NASA mission to Jupiter
• Vega 2 (1985)
Venus flyby during Soviet mission to Venus and Comet Halley
• Vega 1 (1985)
Soviet mission to Venus and Comet Halley
• Venera (1961-1983)
Soviet Venus Missions
• Mariner 10 (1973-1975)
NASA mission to Venus and Mercury
• Mariner 5 (1967)
NASA Venus flyby
• Mariner 2 (1962)
NASA Venus flyby
Venus Information
Latest News About Venus
The rare transit of Venus across the face of the Sun in 2004, taken from North Carolina, USA. Image Credit & Copyright: David Cortner
Venus and Jupiter Put on Cosmic Show
July 1, 2015
Venus and Jupiter pulled off a grand spectacle in the night sky.
Both bright planets appeared to glide closer together over the month of June in a conjunctionNASA called the "best backyard sky show of 2015."
The planets have been slowly getting closer to each other over the past few weeks. Tuesday night marked the culmination with both planets appearing one-third of a degree apart, giving them the appearance of a double star, according to NASA.
Volcanoes on Venus? Lava may still flow on mysterious planet
June 19, 2015
Hidden beneath a thick atmosphere, volcanoes may still be erupting on the surface of Venus, a new study finds.
The findings, described in the journal Geophysical Review Letters, reveal that our nearest planetary neighbor could be far more active than previously thought.
Scientists hope Venus will give up the secret of how life evolved on Earth
April 14, 2015
Venus has a special place in the sun’s family of planets. It is the solar system’s most inhospitable world. Its surface temperature, around 460C, would melt lead and sear a human to death in seconds while his or her remains were crushed to pulp by an atmosphere 92 times denser than Earth’s.
Scientists believe it could provide crucial information about the existence of habitable exoplanets orbiting other stars in our galaxy and important clues about the geological evolution of our own planet and the emergence of life here.
10 Need-to-Know Things About Venus:
-
Venus is only slighly smaller than planet Earth.
-
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun.
-
One day on Venus lasts as long as 243 Earth days (the time it takes for Venus to rotate). Venus makes a complete orbit around the Sun in 225 Earth days.
-
Venus is a rocky planet, also known as a terrestrial planet. Venus' solid surface is a cratered and volcanic landscape with more volcanoes than any other planet.
-
Venus' atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N2), with clouds of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) droplets.
-
Venus has no moons and no rings.
-
More than 40 spacecraft have explored Venus. The Magellan mission in the early 1990s mapped 98 percent of the planet's surface.
-
No evidence for life has been found on Venus. The planet's extreme high temperatures of almost 480 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit) make's itan unlikely place for for life as we know it.
-
Due to Venus' unique rotation, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
-
Venus has super-fast winds reaching speeds of 450 miles per hour. The wind on Venus travels faster than the fastest of Earth's tornadoes.
Research and Exploration
Many missions have been deployed to Venus including NASA's Mariner 2, which came within 21,000 miles of Venus in 1962, making it the first planet to be ovserved by a passing spacecraft. The Soviet Union's Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land on another planet, and later, Verera 9 returned the first images of Venus' surface. Over the years following this achievement, several spacecraft have orbited and passed Venus, including Venus Express, which spent 8 years orbiting Venus before running out of fuel in 2014.
The next mission to Venus will be Japan's Akatsuki, which was first launched in 2010 but it's main engine died and the spacecraft was sent hurling into space. It was then recreated with smaller thrusters and the Japanese team hopes to send it into orbit in November 2015.
Physical characteristics
Venus is the hottest world in the solar system, despite not being the planet closest to the Sun. This is due to a runaway greenhouse effect similar to that which warms Earth. It also has a heavy atmosphere, heavier than any other planet, leading to a surface pressure 90 times that of Earth.
The surface of Venus is extemely dry, as well. During the planet's evolution, ultraviolet rays from the Sun evaporated water, keeping the planet in a prolonged molten state. Because of the scorching heat, there is no liquid water on Venus' surface, as the atmosphere would cause any liquid to boil away.
Lastly, about two-thirds of the planet's surface is covered by flat, smooth plains that are marred by valcanoes - some of which are still active today.
This figure shows the volcanic peak Idunn Mons in the Imdr Regio area of Venus. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA
Venus, a world of intense heat and volcanic activity, is very similar to Earth in structure and size. It also has a thick and toxic atmosphere, trapping heat as a result of a runaway greenhouse effect. The planet's heat is so intense that it's temperatures could melt lead. Interestingly, Venus also spins slowly in the opposite direction of most planets.