VENUS: Venus is named After the roman god of beauty,
Venus is known for its brightness in the night sky. It shines bright by it’s blanketed by highly reflective clouds. The clouds in the atmosphere of Venus contain droplets of sulfuric acid, as well as acidic crystals suspended in a mixture of gasses. Light bounces easily off the smooth surfaces of these gasses and crystals. It reflects 70% of all the sun’s light that reaches this planet. Venus was formed at the same time as the rest of the Solar System, from a large spinning disk of gas and dust. Astronomers think that all this happened about 4.6 billion years ago. Venus takes 225 days to orbit the sun. On average, the distance to Venus from the sun is 67 million miles . At its closest, it is only 66.7 million miles away, at its farthest , it’s only 67.7 million miles.Venus is the second planet from the earth. This planet is the hottest planet, Although Venus is not the planet closest to the sun, its dense atmosphere traps heat in a runaway version of the greenhouse effect that warms Earth. As a result, temperatures on Venus reach 880 degrees F, which is more than hot enough to melt lead. From 2.9 million to 715 million years ago, global temperatures on Venus may have been just a few degrees cooler than earths are today. Scientists theorize that Venus’ surface may have contained shallow oceans that could have held enough water that supported life. Venus is about the same size as earth, just slightly smaller. Their structure is also nearly identical, both with a hot core, a mantle and a crust. Venus as four layers:
Atmosphere: Venus has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and it’s perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat. The atmosphere is so thick that it creates a surface pressure similar to about half a mile deep in the Earth’s oceans. The deadly atmosphere of Venus spins nearly 60 times faster than its surface, whirling around the planet once every 96 hours, an effect known as super-rotation.
Crust: Venus’s crust is made of rock silicates and metals. Venus crust is mostly basalt and is estimated to be 6 to 12 miles. By collisions of plates there are some volcanoes that cover Venus’ atmosphere, the tallest volcano is Maxwell Montes, as tall as Mount Everest.
Mantle: Venus’s mantle is approximately 2,840 kilometers thick.Venus’s mantle is a thick, melted mixture of silicates and relatively small amounts of metallic oxides. Venus mantle has a temperature of about 5200 K. Venus’ molten rocky mantle is roughly 1,200 miles thick.
Core: Venus has an inner core and an outer core; the inner core is solid due to the tremendous weight of the matter above it, and the outer core is liquid. The interior of Venus is made of a metallic iron core that’s roughly 2,400 miles. Venus as in solid core, Although it is hot enough to melt, the tremendous pressure on top of it keeps it solid.
Venus became the first planet to be explored by a spacecraft when NASA’s Mariner 2 successfully flew by the planet at a range of 21,660 miles on Dec. 14, 1962. During a 42-minute scan, the spacecraft gathered important data on the atmosphere and surface before continuing to heliocentric orbit.
Fun facts: On Venus, A day is hotter than a year
Fun fact: Unlike the other planets in our solar system, Venus spins clockwise on its axis.
