Planet ProjectVenus

By: Imani Tyakoff

• Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is the second brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet and is sometimes referred to as the Earth’s sister planet due the their similar size and mass. Before astronomers discovered that Venus is a planet, people believed it to be two different stars, known as The Morning Star and The Evening Star

• The surface of the planet is obscured by an opaque layer of clouds made up of sulfuric acid.

• Until the Americans and Soviets sent their first spacecraft to study

Venus up close, nobody really knew what was down under the

planet’s thick clouds. Science fiction writers dreamed up lush

tropical jungles. The hellish temperatures and dense atmospheres

surprised everyone.

• The thick clouds also mean that heat cannot escape from the

planet, meaning that Venus' temperature can be 480°c, so it is the

hottest planet in the Solar System, even hotter than Mercury, the

closest planet to the Sun!

• The Earth has an average surface temperature of 14 degrees

Celsius, the average temperature of Venus is 460 degrees Celsius.

That is 410 degrees hotter than the hottest deserts on our planet.

• Venus is the second closest planet to the sun at a distance of about 108 million km (67 million miles) or 0.72 AU.

• Venus takes 243 days to turn once on its axis, and it takes almost 225 days to travel once around the Sun in orbit. As you can see, a day on Venus is longer than its year.

Since Venus and Earth are almost the same Since Venus and Earth are almost the same

size and have about the same mass, the size and have about the same mass, the

surface gravity on Venus is almost the same surface gravity on Venus is almost the same

as the surface gravity on Earth. The surface as the surface gravity on Earth. The surface

gravity on Venus is about 91% of the surface gravity on Venus is about 91% of the surface

gravity on Earth, so if you weigh 100 pounds gravity on Earth, so if you weigh 100 pounds

on Earth, you would weigh 91 pounds on on Earth, you would weigh 91 pounds on

VenusVenus!!

• Venus has high mountains, many of which appear to be volcanic

in origin. The bright region near the center in the polar

hemispheric view is Maxwell Montes, the highest mountain range

on Venus; it reaches an elevation of 11 km above average

elevation (2 km more than the elevation of Mount Everest above

sea level on Earth).

• There is strong evidence that volcanoes have erupted on Venus

in the geologically recent past, and strong indirect evidence from

observations like changing chemical composition of the

atmosphere and the detection of lightning in certain regions that

volcanoes are presently active on Venus, though we do not yet.

• The surface of Venus has been smoothed by recent lava flows and by interaction with the corrosive atmosphere.

Venus Venus Venus Venus

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