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Venus Facts

Venus Facts
Venus is one of the planets in our solar system, named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the closest planet in size to the Earth, and it is also the closest planet to Earth. It also has similar gravity to Earth but its atmosphere is much different, having carbon dioxide levels at more than 96%. It has a rocky body, much like Earth, and is often referred to as Earth's twin or sister. Many of Venus' features were named for mythological and historical women. Venus orbits the sun every 224.65 days, and is always the brightest planet to be seen at night from Earth.
Interesting Venus Facts:
Venus' equatorial circumference is 38,025 km. This is only 638 km shorter than Earth's equatorial circumference.
Venus was first recorded by Babylonian astronomers in the 17th century BC.
Venus' mass is 4,867,320,000,000,000 billion kg. This is equal to 0.815 x Earth's mass.
Next to the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in space that can be seen at night from Earth.
The surface temperature on Venus is 462 degrees Celsius.
There is an opaque layer of sulfuric acid clouds on Venus which makes it difficult to see its surface.
Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet, the closest at 38.2 million km.
Most planets rotate anti-clockwise on their axis, but Venus rotates clockwise. Uranus is the only other planet to rotate clockwise.
There are mountains on Venus that are higher than those on Earth. One of Venus' mountains, Maat Mons, reaches more than five miles high.
The water bodies on Venus dried up when the sun started to emit more solar energy, taking approximately 300 million years to do so.
Because of how slow Venus rotates, one day on Venus takes longer than a year on Earth.
The atmospheric pressure on Venus is so great that small asteroids are crushed when they enter its atmosphere.
The ancient Greeks called Venus Phosphorus, and Hesperus, as they believed it was two different planets due its strange orbit.
The ancient Romans called Venus Lucifer and Vesper, also believing, like the Greeks, that Venus was actually two different planets.
Venus is so hot, and its atmosphere so dangerous to humans, that astronauts cannot land on the surface.
The Russians lost a space probe in 1961, after it was sent to Venus. This was the first mission to Venus.
The United States also lost their first probe sent to Venus, called Mariner 1.
The first man-made space craft to land on Venus was the Venera 3, which landed in 1966.
There are four terrestrial planets in our solar system. Venus is the second largest of the four.
There are no seasons on Venus like there are on Earth. It's always extremely hot, and because it has such a high carbon dioxide level in its atmosphere, there is a constant greenhouse effect.
Venus has also been referred to as the Evening Star and the Morning Star, because of the early beliefs that there were actually two planets.


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