Venus
hideVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6. Because Venus is an inferior planet from Earth, it never appears to venture far from the Sun: its elongation reaches a maximum of 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it is often called the Morning Star or the Evening Star.
Classified as a terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because they are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition. Venus is covered with an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, as it has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor organic life to absorb it in biomass. A younger Venus is believed to have possessed Earth-like oceans, but these totally evaporated as the temperature rose, leaving a dusty dry desertscape with many slab-like rocks. The water has most likely dissociated, and, because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field, the hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of the Earth.
Venus' surface was a subject of speculation until some of its secrets were revealed by planetary science in the twentieth century. It was finally mapped in detail by Project Magellan in 1990–91. The ground shows evidence of extensive volcanism, and the sulfur in the atmosphere may indicate that there have been some recent eruptions. However, it is an enigma why no evidence of lava flow accompanies any of the visible caldera. There are a low number of impact craters, demonstrating that the surface is relatively young, approximately half a billion years old. There is no evidence for plate tectonics, possibly because its crust is too strong to subduct without water to make it less viscous. Instead, Venus may lose its internal heat in periodic massive resurfacing events.
The adjective Venusian is commonly used for items related to Venus, though the Latin adjective is the rarely used Venerean; the archaic Cytherean is still occasionally encountered. Venus is the only planet in the Solar System named after a female figure,[a] although three dwarf planets – Ceres, Eris and Haumea – along with hundreds of the first discovered asteroids also have feminine names.
For more information about Venus, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with venus
Paradigm shift: How Galileo's spy glass upended science
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 23, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (9) |
4
Today it would hardly pass muster as a child's plaything, but the telescope Galileo used 400 years ago this week to peer into the heavens overturned the foundations of knowledge, changing our perception of ...
Venus Express adds evidence for atmospheric water loss on Earth's Twin
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Sep 16, 2009 |
not rated yet |
1
Observations by the European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission have provided strong new evidence that the solar wind has stripped away significant quantities of water from Earth’s twin planet. The data ...
For carnivorous plants, slow but steady wins the race
Sep 14, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
Like the man-eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors, carnivorous plants rely on animal prey for sustenance. Fortunately for humans, carnivorous plants found in nature are not dependent on a diet of human blood but rather ...
Snaring bigger bugs gave flytraps evolutionary edge
Aug 26, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (3) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Carnivorous plants defy our expectations of how plants should behave, with Venus flytraps employing nerve-like reflexes and powerful digestive enzymes to capture and consume fresh meat.
Expanding Spot on Venus Puzzles Astronomers
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 04, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (30) |
7
(PhysOrg.com) -- The expanding spot discovered on Venus last month may not have garnered as much attention as the meteor impact with Jupiter, but its cause is certainly more puzzling. ...
New map hints at Venus's wet, volcanic past (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 14, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (8) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, ...
Earth-Venus smash-up possible in 3.5 billion years: study
Jun 10, 2009 |
3.1 / 5 (21) |
12
A force known as orbital chaos may cause our Solar System to go haywire, leading to possible collision between Earth and Venus or Mars, according to a study released Wednesday.
UFO? No, it's just the International Space Station
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 05, 2009 |
4 / 5 (7) |
4
As a public service, Art Maurer would like you to know that the bright light you might see skimming across the early morning sky later this week is not a UFO.
Venus Disappears during Meteor Shower
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 17, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (12) |
0
Picture this: It's 4:30 in the morning. You're up and out before the sun. Steam rises from your coffee cup, floating up to the sky where a silent meteor streaks through a crowd of stars. A few minutes later ...
Galileo's telescope on historic visit to Philly
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 02, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
0
(AP) -- Though it looks like a cardboard tube that got left out in the rain, it's a priceless instrument whose owner changed the world. The mottled brown cylinder on display at The Franklin Institute science ...
Pretty Sky Alert
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 27, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (4) |
1
Be careful, this sort of thing can cause an accident. On Friday evening, Feb. 27th, the 10% crescent Moon will glide by Venus, forming a gorgeous and mesmerizing pair of lights in the sunset sky.
Watching Venus glow in the dark
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 24, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (5) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has observed an eerie glow in the night-time atmosphere of Venus. This infrared light comes from nitric oxide and is showing scientists that the atmosphere of ...
ESA extends key missions studying Mars, Venus and Earth’s magnetosphere
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 10, 2009 |
4 / 5 (2) |
0
ESA’s Science Programme Committee has extended the operations of ESA’s Mars Express, Venus Express and Cluster missions until 31 December 2009.
