| Venus Facts Table |
Mass (1024 kg ): | 4.87 |
Volume (109 km^3): | 928.42 |
Equatorial Diameter (km): | 12,104 |
Polar Diameter (km): | 12,104 |
Age of the Planet: | 4.5 billion years |
Number of Moons: | 0 |
Average Surface Temperature: | 464 °C |
Gravity (m/s2): | 8.9 |
Oxygen Level (O2) | less than 0.001% |
Carbon Dioxide Level (CO2): | 96.5% |
Day Length (hrs): | 2802.0 |
Average Distance from Sun (106 km): | 108.2 |
Closest Distance to Sun (Perihelion) (106 km): | 107.5 |
Furthest Distance from Sun (Aphelion) (106 km): | 108.9 |
Orbit Distance: | 679.6 million km |
Orbiting velocity (km/h): | 126,000 |
Time to Orbit the Sun (Orbital Period): | 0.62 Earth year |
Actual Color: | Orange |
Appearance Color: | White |
Atmosphere Thickness: | Very thick |
Axial Tilt Angle (degrees): | 2.64 |
Magnetic field: | Very weak |
Ring system: | Not exist |
Venus is the second planet from the Sun after Mercury and the closest planet to our Earth. It has a thick atmosphere with thick clouds that rain sulfuric acid and reflects 70% of all sunlight reaching it. Because of the huge sunlight reflection, Venus gets its bright identity at the night sky to be the brightest planet in our solar system. Venus is so inhospitable; its surface pressure equals the pressure under Earth’s water at the depth of 2,600 feet (800 meters), which is strong enough to crush any human stands there. The temperature on Venus is extremely high as well; it reaches 880°F (471 °C) to be the hottest planet in the solar system.
Even though living on Venus planet is an impossible task, scientists call Venus The Earth’s Sister due to the huge similarities they both share.
1. Venus is visible to the naked eye.
Venus is one of the five bright planets that we are able to make out in the night sky (the full list includes Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter).
The best upcoming dates to catch a glimpse of Venus in the night sky are as follows:
- November 24, 2019(Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter): On this date, the bright planets of Venus and Jupiter will present a majestic astronomical show in the western sky just after sunset.
- March 24, 2020, and October 29, 2021(Venus Greatest Eastern Elongation): This stunning event is best viewed in the western sky just after sunset.
- August 13, 2020, and March 20, 2021 (Venus at Greatest Western Elongation): Wake up early to catch a spectacular glimpse of Venus in the eastern sky just before sunrise.
2. Venus was originally known as the “Morning Star” and the “Evening Star.”
Long ago, the ancient Greeks and Egyptians thought that Venus was, in fact, two different objects as Venus uniquely appears in the sky both after sunset (“Evening Star”) and before sunrise (“Morning Star”). Ancient Greeks and Egyptians were doubly mistaken: Venus is neither a star, nor two distinct astronomical objects, but one vibrant planet.
3. Venus is called Earth’s “sister.”
Venus and Earth share some similarities like size, mass, density, gravity, proximity to the Sun, and their structures; consequently, Venus is sometimes called the Earth’s sister planet.
4. Even though Venus is not the closest planet to the Sun, it is the hottest one.
Venus is twice as far from the Sun as Mercury. Nevertheless, Venus is not only hotter than Mercury, but also the hottest planet in our solar system. Venus has a dense atmosphere that traps heat and preserves its temperature. Its atmosphere is full of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and its clouds are mainly made of sulfuric acid.
5. The surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead.
Venus’s surface temperature can reach up to 880°F (471 °C). This temperature is so hot that it is capable of melting lead, which possesses a melting point of 612°F (327 °C).
6. Venus is the brightest planet in the solar system.
Venus looks like a small white dot in the night sky and is brighter than any other object that appears beside it (besides the Moon). The planet is bright enough to be seen not only at night, but also in the clear, midday sky. Venus received its identity as the brightest planet in our solar system as a result of its exceedingly reflective clouds as well as its close proximity to Earth.
7. Venus reflects around 70% of the sunlight that reaches it, making it shine more brightly than any other planet.
Upon entering into space, we have been able to discover that Venus appears to be bright white because of the dense clouds in its atmosphere that effectively reflect and scatter sunlight. As we approach Venus, Venus begins to look orange. When looking past Venus’s atmosphere and at its surface, the color of its rocks are actually varying shades of grey like those found on Earth. Thus, it is its thick atmosphere that is responsible for filtering sunlight to reflect the color orange out into the solar system as well as white when the planet is viewed from father distances. [1]
8. Atmospheric pressure on Venus is 92 times greater than that on Earth.
9. Humans would be crushed if they ventured onto Venus.
Atmospheric pressure on Venus is very high; it is equivalent to the pressure found on Earth 800 m below the surface of the ocean. This amount of pressure is strong enough to crush anyone that were to stand upon its surface.
10. Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet in the solar system.
Among the four terrestrial planets that make up our solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet after Earth, boasting a volume of 928.42 x 109 km3.
11. Sulfuric acid rains down from Venus’s clouds, but never reaches the ground.
Venus’s atmosphere is composed of considerable amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. Thus, Venus usually experiences acid rain. Surprisingly, none of the rain that is produced by these clouds actually meets the surface of Venus: rain evaporates before it ever hits the ground due to Venus’s extremely high temperatures.
12. Venus has an extremely weak magnetic field.
According to measurements made utilizing NASA’s Magellan magnetometer, the strength of Venus’s magnetic field is about 0.000015 times that of Earth’s magnetic field. NASA proposes that Venus has such an extraordinarily weak magnetic field because of its slow rotation.
13. Venus rotates in the opposite direction compared with most other planets.
Because Venus spins in the opposite direction from most other planets, including Earth, its sunrises and sunsets are also the opposite: On Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east, rather than rising in the east and setting in the west – as it does on Earth.
14. Venus has almost no seasonal variation.
One reason why Venus has no noticeable seasonal variation is that its axial tilt measures 2.7 °, which means that there is little angular difference of its axis relative to the Sun during different points in its revolution. Earth, contrary to Venus, has an axial tilt of 23.4°, which results in more noticeable seasonal changes.
15. If you weigh 100 kg on Earth, you would weigh 90.8 kg on Venus.
Weight essentially measures the amount of gravity that acts on an object. While gravity determines the weight of an object, the weight of an object differs depending upon which planet it is on, as different planets exert different amounts of gravity. Venus’s gravity is 29.2 ft/s2 (8.9 m/s2), which is 9.2% less than the gravity on Earth, which equals 32 ft/s2 (9.8 m/s2). Thus, the weight of object on Venus would be 0.908 what it would weigh if measured on Earth.
16. The Soviet Union’s Venera 13 lander survived on Venus for more than two hours.
It is very difficult for spacecrafts to withstand Venus’s harsh environment: the planet’s powerful pressure and high temperatures produce devastating effects which often result in destruction. Engineers have expended considerable efforts to develop robotic spacecraft that can tolerate the extreme environment of Venus for as long as possible, in order to make harvesting more data about the planet possible. An example of this is the Soviet Union’s development of the Venera 13 lander.
17. Venus’s uppermost clouds can move at speeds of up to 360 km/hr.
18. Billions of years ago, the climate of Venus may have been similar to that of Earth.
19. Venus and Earth share many structural similarities.
Scientists suggest that Venus has a central iron core with a diameter of 3,977 miles (6,400 km). This rocky mantle is comprised of hot rock and a solid thin crust of rock similar to Earth.
20. Venus has the most semi-circular orbit out of all the planets in our solar system
The orbital eccentricity of Venus is 0.007, which is the smallest eccentricity value compared with the other planets in the solar system (the smaller the eccentricity, the closer the orbit is to a perfectly circular shape). When looking at Earth, we find that its orbit is more elliptically shaped than that of Venus’s orbit. Earth’s eccentricity is measured at 0.017.
