Venus

The goddess of love and beauty

Last updated:

USA[07/29/19]

NZL[29/07/19]

-[Temperature|Atmosphere|Weather]

Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun and is the hottest in the Solar System. It is also the third brightest natural object in the sky after the sun and moon. You may ask, why is it the hottest planet if it's not the closest to the Sun? Well, the reason is that Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, doesn't really have an atmosphere to regulate temperatures and results in the most extreme temperature changes. But Venus has a dense atmosphere made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sulfuric acid. To put this into simpler terms, Venus has a thicker atmosphere than Mercury, which means Venus keeps the heat and Mercury cannot. Venus' temperature doesn't vary much. Its average temperature is 462 degrees Celsius(863 Fahrenheit). Also, Venus doesn't tilt on its axis which means there are no seasons.

-[Orbit & Rotation]

A day on Venus is longer than one year! This happens because Venus has a slow rotation on its axis. It's so slow that it takes 243 Earth-days to complete one rotation and takes 225 Earth-days to make one whole orbit around the Sun. When Venus is rotating at its very slow speed, it actually spins the opposite direction to other planets in the Solar System. Most planets rotate counter-clockwise on their axis, but only Venus and Uranus rotate clockwise. This is called retrograde rotation. Scientists believe that the planets axis rotations could've changed because of a collision with an asteroid or another object. Venus also has the closest orbit to being a circle out of all the planets.

-[Surface|Magentic Field]

The atmospheric pressure on Venus is 92 times stronger than Earth's, meaning that any small asteroid that enters the atmosphere of Venus would be crushed by the immense pressure. This pressure is about the same as being 1,000 km under the Earth's ocean! If you were to look at Venus' surface, you wouldn't see any small craters. Scientists expected Venus to have a similar magnetic field to Earth. After all, Venus is sometimes called Earth's sister planet because of their similar mass and size. It is also the closest planet to Earth! But scientists discovered that Venus' magnetic field was very weak. This surprised scientists. A possible reason for such a weak magnetic field maybe that Venus has no solid inner core, or that its core isn't cooling.

-[Name Origin]

Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. This is no surprise because the planet is very bright! It is the third brightest object in the sky! Also, Venus is the only planet in the Solar System to be named after a goddess rather than a god.

-Notes-

Type- Terrestrial

Made of- Iron core, rocky mantle, and silicate crust

Temperature- (462 C) (864 F)

Diameter- 12,104 km

Mass- 4.867 x 10^24 kg

Distance from Sun- 108.2 million km (varies)

Distance from Earth- 38 million km (closest) (varies)

Images below-