Venus

Venus is defined as the Roman goddess of beauty and love, or the second planet from the sun.

Facts About the Planet Venus

• Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.
• It is visible a few hours before sunrise and a few hours after sunset and cannot be seen in the middle of the night.
• Its orbit around the Sun takes about 225 days.
• The planet rotates from east to west, which is the opposite way of most planets. Therefore, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
• Its rotation is slow compared to other planets, with a day lasting the equivalent of 243 Earth days.
• Venus has no moons.
• Venus is made mostly of silicate rock.
• With a surface pressure ninety times higher than Earth’s, life could not survive there.
• Venus has a thick atmosphere mostly of carbon dioxide.
• It is covered by clouds of sulfuric acid which move around the planet quickly because of strong winds in the upper atmosphere. The clouds block light and create a greenhouse effect, so Venus’s temperature can reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit.
• There is and has been volcanic activity. There are high mountains, most likely caused by this volcanic activity, and extremely large rift valleys.
• Venus has no moons and no one really knows why.
• Venus has been explored with a fly-by of Mariner 2 in 1962, two Soviet probes and a landing in 1970, photographs by Mariner 10 and t0 spacecrafts from 1975; through 1984, and the U.S. space probe mapping the surface using radar in 1990.
• Today the details of objects as small as 330 feet across can now been seen on Venus from the images sent back to Earth.