Venus

    Venus is, in many respects, the twin of Earth. These outward similarities led some to believe that Venus was a hospitable planet, where jungles and dinosaurs could be found. These misguided theories gave us some of the best bad science fiction movies of all time, such as Queen of Outer Space. A new film, based on Edgar Rice Burrough's Venus series, is due to be released in a couple of years. But, in no way is Venus an identical twin of Earth. The conditions on its surface are brutal! A number of space probes from the former Soviet Union and the United States have gathered data which give us an entirely different view of Venus. We have hundreds of images from these probes. All of which show a barren and inhospitable surface. Here is a fascinating illustration that corrects the perspective distortion of the Venera surface images.

    Venus has an atmosphere which is far denser than that of Earth. The main constituent of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, with a small amount of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide. Sulfuric acid rains down from the clouds. We now have proof of frequent lightning strikes on the surface. The surface temperature is over 460 degrees Celsius.

    The clouds of Venus are quite different from those here on Earth. For one thing, the lower deck of the clouds is much higher than we see on our planet. But might there be a layer in Venus' atmosphere where life could exist?

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Here are some of the essential facts about Venus:

• Radius 6052 km which is about the same size as Earth
  
• Rotation -243 days sidereal 117 days synodic
  
• Revolution 225 days to orbit the Sun
  
• Semi major axis .72 A.U. Venus' orbit is about three quarters the size of Earth's
  
• Atmosphere Mostly Carbon Dioxide at extreme pressure; 90 atmospheres pressure
  
• Surface Features Maxwell, a huge shield volcano in the north. As well as many other shield volcanoes.
  Plenty of weird features imaged by Magellan, including some things called "pancake domes".
  
• Moons or ringsTo the best of our knowledge, there are no small bodies orbiting Venus. There is nothing Neith about Venus.
  
• Space Probes Venus has been visited several times by Soviet and American spacecraft. Most notably, the Russians were quite successful with their Venera probes, returning numerous images. The U.S. made detailed radar maps with the help of the Magellan orbiter. Venus Express is now operating in Venus orbit.

    Despite forty years of investigations by spacecraft, the surface conditions on Venus still remain something of a mystery. A human being on the surface seems to be an event of the far futre.

Try this site for more information on Venus!

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Updated October 21, 2010