Solar System Exploration: Planet Selector: Venus

PLANET SELECTOR

ABOUT VENUS

Venus is a dim world of intense heat and volcanic activity. Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway 'greenhouse effect.' Glimpses below the clouds reveal volcanoes and deformed mountains. Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction of most planets.
Read More About Venus >>

Featured Mission: Venus Express
Europe's Venus Express will spend about 500 days mapping the surface of Venus and studying its atmosphere. The spacecraft arrives at Venus in 2006.
Read More About Venus Express >>

VITAL STATISTICS

Average Distance from Sun:	108,208,930 km (67,237,910 miles)
Diameter:	12,103.6 km (7,520.8 miles)
Volume:	0.88 x Earth's
Mass:	4,868,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg (0.815 x Earth's)
Length of Day:	243 Earth days
Length of Year:	224 Earth days
Known Moons:	0

SIZE & DISTANCE

Venus is only a little smaller than Earth.

Average Distance from the Sun: 108,208,930 km (0.72 A.U.)

EXTREME SPACE

The Longest Day
A day on Venus is longer than its year. The planet makes a complete trip around our Sun - a year - in 225 Earth days. But thanks to its sluggish rotation (once every 243 days), a single day - 24 hours here on our planet - lasts 117 Earth days on Venus.

Too Hot to Handle
Venus - not Mercury - is the hottest planet in our solar system. Even though Mercury is closer to the sun, Venus' toxic clouds trap the Sun's heat. That runaway 'greenhouse effect' makes Venus' surface sizzle at about 457°C (854°F). That's hot enough to melt lead.

Backspin
If an action hero wanted to ride off into the sunset on Venus, she'd have to head east instead of west. Venus rotates in the opposite direction of the other planets - a retrograde rotation - so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

Night Light
Venus is the brightest planet in Earth's night sky. Only the Moon - which is not a planet - is brighter. Venus outshines the other planets because it is closer and its thick clouds are excellent for reflecting the Sun's light.

Girl Power
Venus's beauty in the night sky inspired ancient astronomers to name it for the goddess of love and beauty. Almost all the surface features of Venus are named for amazing Earth women. Only one spot - Maxwell Montes - is named for the man whose work in physics made surface observations of Venus possible.

Secret Surface
Scientists weren't about to let dense clouds, extreme heat and intense pressure stop them from studying the surface of Venus. In 1990, they used the Magellan spacecraft's powerful radar to peer through the clouds and map most of the surface of the planet.

TIMELINE

650 A.D. - Mayan astronomers detailed observations of Venus lead to a highly accurate calendar.

1761-1769 - Two European expeditions to watch Venus pass in front of the Sun give early astronomers the first good estimate of the Sun's distance from Earth.

1962 - NASA's Mariner 2 reaches Venus. It is the first spacecraft to send back information from another planet.

1970 - Russia's Venera 7 sends back 23 minutes of data from the surface of Venus. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to successfully land on another planet.

1974 - NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft becomes the first spacecraft to take close-up pictures of the globe of Venus and the first to use Venus for gravity assist (on the way to Mercury).

1990-now - NASA's Magellan spacecraft uses radar to peer through the clouds and map 98 percent of Venus' surface. In 2006, NASA's Venus Express spacecraft discovered a double-eye atmosphere vortex in Venus' South Pole.

SLIDE SHOW

Venus in True Color
Venus Over Earth's Moon
Unique Volcano in Eistla Region
Radar View of Venera 10 Landing Site
Venera 13 on Venus
Colorized Venus Cloud Patterns
Wheatley Crater
Computer-generated View of Maat Mons
Thermal Image of Phoebe Regio
Themis Regio Radar Image

MOONS

Venus has no moons.