The History of Venus
As Earth’s sister planet, Venus is quite similar in size and composition. The planet Venus is named about the Roman goddess responsible for beauty and love. During the prehistoric era, it was believed that Venus was considered two separate entities - Hesperus, the evening star, and Phosphorus, the morning star. The planet is aptly named because it is the brightest of all the planets. Its brightness might be due to iron pyrite or "fools gold” thought to be located in its soil.
When seen from Earth using a telescope, Venus appears pale yellow in color and many of its surface features cannot be seen due to its thick cover of clouds.
The Orbit Of Venus
The orbit of Venus is circular in shape, and no other planet has a more circular orbit than Venus. The perihelion, or point at which the planet is closest to the sun, is 107.5 million kilometers (66 million miles), whereas its aphelion, or the point at which the planet is farthest from the sun, is 108.2 million kilometers (67 million miles).
Another important fact that makes Venus unique is in the rotation of the planet. Venus rotates in retrograde fashion with movement in a clockwise direction, whereas all other planets rotate in a counterclockwise direction. Therefore, this is in the opposite direction to Earth. The sun will “rise” in the west and “set” in the east.
The orbit of Venus is approximately 225 Earth days. A sunrise-to-sunrise on Venus would last 243 Earth days (Head 2004).
As a result of Earth and Venus being so close in proximity, the rotation of Earth and Venus is coordinated in such a way that when viewing Venus at their closest proximity, the same side is always presented to Earth.
Expeditions To Venus
There have been numerous successful expeditions to Venus, as our “sister” planet is only 38.2 million miles from Earth. The first expedition to occur was by the United States on December 14, 1962 by Mariner 2 spacecraft to measure the atmosphere surrounding the planet.
In February 1966, the second expedition to Venus was by the Soviet spacecraft Venera 2.
The Soviets sent a third spacecraft Venera 3 in March 1966, but it ended up smashing into Venus.
The fourth successful expedition after Venera 2 was in October 1967 with the Soviet Union’s Venera 4 spacecraft, and the United States’ Mariner 5 spacecraft.
In December 1970, the Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 touched down on Venus to take photos, followed by the United States’ Mariner 10, which circled past Venus.
In October 1975, Venera 9 and Venera 10 landed on Venus and took photos of its surface.
In December 1978, the United States sent at the beginning of the month, the space shuttle Pioneer Venus 1 to orbit the planet. A few days later Pioneer Venus 2 was also sent to Venus. The Soviets sent Venera 11 and Venera 12 at the end of that same month.
In 1982 Soviet crafts Venera 13 and Venera 14 were sent to retrieve soil samples.
The expeditions continued between 1983-1984 with Venera 13 to Venera 16. The last orbiting expedition to Venus was spacecraft Magellan in August 1990. As a result of its proximity, there have been more than fifteen successful expeditions to Venus (Head 2004).
Exploring A Day On Venus
As stated previously, someone on Venus would complete one year (225 Earth days) before completing a day (243 Earth days). Therefore, the year on Venus would be shorter than on Earth, but a day on Venus would be considerably longer.
The next thing noticeable on Venus is the scorching heat. The temperatures on this planet can reach an amazing 900 degrees Fahrenheit due to the greenhouse effect, which traps the heat from the sun close to the surface. This greenhouse effect can be attributed to the thick cloud layer and dense atmosphere. At the top of the cloud cover, the temperature is a bearable 77 degrees Fahrenheit, but at the bottom of the cloud cover, it can go as high as 900 degrees Fahrenheit.
The cloud cover on Venus is the thickest of all the planets, and consists of 96% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, and trace amounts of carbon monoxide, sulfuric acid, helium, argon, and a small amount of water vapor. However with the scorching heat, there would be no oceans to swim in, or rainfall to cool the surface down.
While investigating the landscape of Venus, an explorer would observe the rocky nature of the planet. It would be possible to see the flat plains that comprise two-thirds of the planet. These plains would be interspersed between mountains and valleys, as well as numerous volcanoes, which are still active. The most remarkable of the low-lying areas are the Guinevere Planitia, the Lavinia Planitia, and the Atalanta Planitia. Therefore, as you can see, the surface features on Venus have female names.
There are mountain ranges on Venus as well, with the highest of them being the Maxwell Montes range. The Maxwell Montes is 11.3 kilometers in height and similar to the Himalayan Mountains on Earth (Head 2004).
Due to the tectonic activity on the planet, other landscape features that would be noticeable would the appearance of Coronae and Tesserae. Coronae are long wide circular fractures or ridges that are might have been formed when molten material has come up from the interior of Venus.
The discovery of Tesserae has presented a challenge to geologists. Tesserae are tile-like structures of valleys and ridges. However, unlike on Earth, each corresponding valley and ridge would run parallel to each other, but intersect an adjacent valley or ridge at a different angle. Nothing like this is seen on Earth and scientists are not sure by which method they are formed at different angles to each other.
Venus has been termed the most uninhabitable planet for life to exist. The dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sulfuric acid, along with the 900 degree Fahrenheit temperatures would be too much for humans to withstand.
Statistics About Venus
| Discovered By | Known by the Ancients |
| Date of Discovery | Unknown |
| Average Distance from the Sun | Metric: 108,208,930 km English: 67,237,910 miles Scientific Notation: 1.0820893 x 108 km (.723332 A.U.) By Comparison: 0.723 x Earth |
| Perihelion (closest) | Metric: 107,476,000 km English: 66,782,000 miles Scientific Notation: 1.07476 x 108 km (0.718 A.U.) By Comparison: 0.730 x Earth |
| Aphelion (farthest) | Metric: 108,942,000 km English: 67,693,000 miles Scientific Notation: 1.08942 x 108 km (0.728 A.U.) By Comparison: 0.716 x Earth |
| Equatorial Radius | Metric: 6,051.8 km English: 3,760.4 miles Scientific Notation: 6.0518 x 103 km By Comparison: 0.9488 x Earth |
| Equatorial Circumference | Metric: 38,025 km English: 23,627 miles Scientific Notation: 3.8025 x 104 km |
| Volume | Metric: 928,400,000,000 km3 Scientific Notation: 9.284 x 1011 km3 By Comparison: 0.88 x Earth's |
| Mass | Metric: 4,868,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg Scientific Notation: 4.8685 x 1024 kg By Comparison: 0.815 x Earth |
| Density | Metric: 5.24 g/cm3 By Comparison: Comparable to the average density of the Earth. |
| Surface Area | Metric: 460,200,000 km2 English: 177,700,000 square miles Scientific Notation: 4.602 x 108 km2 By Comparison: 0.902 x Earth |
| Equatorial Surface Gravity | Metric: 8.87 m/s2 English: 29.1 ft/s2 By Comparison: If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 91 pounds on Venus. |
| Escape Velocity | Metric: 37,300 km/h English: 23,200 mph Scientific Notation: 1.036 x 104 m/s By Comparison: 0.927 x Earth |
| Sidereal Rotation Period (Length of Day) |
-243 Earth days (retrograde) -5832 hours (retrograde) By Comparison: By Comparison: 244 x Earth |
| Sidereal Orbit Period (Length of Year) |
0.615 Earth years 224.7 Earth days By Comparison: 0.615 x Earth |
| Mean Orbit Velocity | Metric: 126,077 km/h English: 78,341 mph Scientific Notation: 35,021.4 m/s By Comparison: 1.176 x Earth |
| Orbital Eccentricity | .0068 By Comparison: 0.405 x Earth |
| Orbital Inclination to Ecliptic | 3.39 degrees |
| Equatorial Inclination to Orbit |
177.3 degrees By Comparison: 7.56 x Earth |
| Orbital Circumference | Metric: 675,300,000 km English: 419,600,000 miles Scientific Notation: 6.753 x 108 km By Comparison: 0.731 x Earth |
| Minimum/Maximum Surface Temperature | Metric: 462 °C English: 864 °F Scientific Notation: 735 K |
| Atmospheric Constituents | Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Scientific Notation: CO2, N2 By Comparison: Earth's atmosphere consists mostly of N2 and O2. CO2 is largely responsible for the Greenhouse Effect and is used for carbonation in beverages. N2 is 80% of Earth's air and is a crucial element in DNA |
| Table 1: Concise statistics on the planet Venus (N.A.S.A. 2006) | |
References
Encyclopedia Britannica. "Venus." 2006. Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service. 2006
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9110146
Head, James W., III. "Venus." World Book Online Reference Center. 2004. World Book, Inc.
http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar582880
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A). "Venus: Facts & Figures." 2006
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Venus
&Display=Facts&System=Metric
Venus Images
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