Venus

Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to 2
billion years of its early history, according to computer modeling of the planet’s ancient climate
by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

Second planet from the Sun and our closest planetary neighbor, Venus is similar in structure and
size to Earth, but it is now a very different world. Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction
most planets do. Its thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the
hottest planet in our solar system—with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Glimpses
below the clouds reveal volcanoes and deformed mountains.

This Magellan image is centered at 74.6 degrees north latitude and 177.3 east longitude, in the
northeastern Atalanta Region of Venus. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

10 Things to Know About Venus

1

Earth-Sized

If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, the Earth and Venus would each be about the size
of a nickel.

Second Rock

Venus orbits our Sun, a star. Venus is the second closest planet to the sun at a distance of about
67 million miles (108 million km).

A Day Longer Than a Year

One day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days because Venus spins backwards, with its sun rising in the
west and setting in the east.

Chasing Clouds on Venus

Diverse Terrain
Venus' solid surface is a volcanic landscape covered with extensive plains featuring high
volcanic mountains and vast ridged plateaus.

Moonless and Ringless

Venus has no moons and no rings.

Greenhouse Effect

The planet’s surface temperature is about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius)—hot
enough to melt lead.

Water on Venus

Many scientists believe water once existed on the surface. Future Venus explorers will search for
evidence of an ancient ocean.

Many Visitors

More than 40 spacecraft have explored Venus. The ‘90s Magellan mission mapped the planet's
surface and Akatsuki is currently orbiting Venus.

Life on Venus

Venus’ extreme temperatures and acidic clouds make it an unlikely place for life as we know it.

10

Super Rotating Atmosphere

While the surface rotates slowly, the winds blow at hurricane force, sending clouds completely
around the planet every five days.

Venus - 3-D Perspective View of Sapas Mons

Did You Know?
The Soviet Union’s Venera 13 survived the intense heat and crushing pressure of Venus’ surface
for more than two hours. Engineers from several nations are currently studying methods to
extend the life of robotic spacecraft in the extreme environment.

ON THIS PAGE

 Introduction
 Size and Distance
 Orbit and Rotation
 Structure
 Surface
 Atmosphere
 Potential for Life
 Moons
 Rings
 Magnetosphere

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and our closest planetary neighbor. Similar in structure
and size to Earth, Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction from most planets. Its thick
atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar
system with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Glimpses below the clouds reveal
volcanoes and deformed mountains.

Venus is named for the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty, who was known as
Aphrodite to the Ancient Greeks.

Size and Distance

With a radius of 3,760 miles (6,052 kilometers), Venus is roughly the same size as Earth — just
slightly smaller.

From an average distance of 67 million miles (108 million kilometers), Venus is 0.7
astronomical units away from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the
distance from the Sun to Earth. It takes sunlight 6 minutes to travel from the Sun to Venus.

Orbit and Rotation

Venus' rotation and orbit are unusual in several ways. Venus is one of just two planets that rotate
from east to west. Only Venus and Uranus have this "backwards" rotation. It completes one
rotation in 243 Earth days — the longest day of any planet in our solar system, even longer than
a whole year on Venus. But the Sun doesn't rise and set each "day" on Venus like it does on most
other planets. On Venus, one day-night cycle takes 117 Earth days because Venus rotates in the
direction opposite of its orbital revolution around the Sun.
Venus makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Venusian time) in 225 Earth days or
slightly less than two Venusian day-night cycles. Its orbit around the Sun is the most circular of
any planet — nearly a perfect circle. Other planet's orbits are more elliptical, or oval-shaped.

With an axial tilt of just 3 degrees, Venus spins nearly upright, and so does not experience
noticeable seasons.

Formation

When the solar system settled into its current layout about 4.5 billion years ago, Venus formed
when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust together to form the second planet from the Sun. Like
its fellow terrestrial planets, Venus has a central core, a rocky mantle and a solid crust.

Kid-Friendly Venus
Even though Venus isn't the closest planet to the Sun, it is still the hottest. It has a thick
atmosphere full of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and clouds made of sulfuric acid. The
atmosphere traps heat and keeps Venus toasty warm. It's so hot on Venus, metals like lead would
be puddles of melted liquid.

Venus looks like a very active planet. It has mountains and volcanoes. Venus is similar in size to
Earth. Earth is just a little bit bigger.

Venus is unusual because it spins the opposite direction of Earth and most other planets. And its
rotation is very slow.

Visit NASA Space Place for more kid-friendly facts.

NASA Space Place: All About Venus ›

Structure

Venus is in many ways similar to Earth in its structure. It has an iron core that is approximately
2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) in radius. Above that is a mantle made of hot rock slowly
churning due to the planet's interior heat. The surface is a thin crust of rock that bulges and
moves as Venus' mantle shifts and creates volcanoes.

From space, Venus is bright white because it is covered with clouds that reflect and scatter
sunlight. At the surface, the rocks are different shades of grey, like rocks on Earth, but the thick
atmosphere filters the sunlight so that everything would look orange if you were standing on
Venus.
Venus has mountains, valleys, and tens of thousands of volcanoes. The highest mountain on
Venus, Maxwell Montes, is 20,000 feet high (8.8 kilometers), similar to the highest mountain on
Earth, Mount Everest. The landscape is dusty, and surface temperatures reach a scalding 880
degrees Fahrenheit (471 degrees Celsius).

It is thought that Venus was completely resurfaced by volcanic activity 300 to 500 million years
ago. Venus has two large highland areas: Ishtar Terra, about the size of Australia, in the north
polar region; and Aphrodite Terra, about the size of South America, straddling the equator and
extending for almost 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers).

Venus is covered in craters, but none are smaller than 0.9 to 1.2 miles (1.5 to 2 kilometers)
across. Small meteoroids burn up in the dense atmosphere, so only large meteoroids reach the
surface and create impact craters.

Almost all the surface features of Venus are named for noteworthy Earth women — both
mythological and real. A volcanic crater is named for Sacajawea, the Native American woman
who guided Lewis and Clark's exploration. A deep canyon is named for Diana, Roman goddess
of the hunt.

Atmosphere

Venus' atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide, with clouds of sulfuric acid droplets. The
thick atmosphere traps the Sun's heat, resulting in surface temperatures higher than 880 degrees
Fahrenheit (470 degrees Celsius). The atmosphere has many layers with different temperatures.
At the level where the clouds are, about 30 miles up from the surface, it's about the same
temperature as on the surface of the Earth.

As Venus moves forward in its solar orbit while slowly rotating backwards on its axis, the top
level of clouds zips around the planet every four Earth days, driven by hurricane-force winds
traveling at about 224 miles (360 kilometers) per hour. Atmospheric lightning bursts light up
these quick-moving clouds. Speeds within the clouds decrease with cloud height, and at the
surface are estimated to be just a few miles per hour.

On the ground, it would look like a very hazy, overcast day on Earth. And the atmosphere is so
heavy it would feel like you were 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) deep underwater.

Potential for Life

No human has visited Venus, but the spacecraft that have been sent to the surface of Venus do
not last very long there. Venus' high surface temperatures overheat electronics in spacecraft in a
short time, so it seems unlikely that a person could survive for long on the Venusian surface.

There is speculation about life existing in Venus' distant past, as well as questions about the
possibility of life in the top cloud layers of Venus' atmosphere, where the temperatures are less
extreme.
Moons

Venus has no moons.

Rings

Venus has no rings.

Magnetosphere

Even though Venus is similar in size to the Earth and has a similarly-sized iron core, Venus'
magnetic field is much weaker than the Earth's due to Venus' slow rotation.

Quick Facts
Day
243 Earth days

Year
225 Earth days

Radius
3,760 miles | 6,052 kilometers

Planet Type
Terrestrial

Moons
0

COMPARITION OF VENUS AND EARTH

DATE OF DISCOVERY
Unknown
Unknown
DISCOVERED BY
Known by the Ancients
Known by the Ancients
AVERAGE ORBIT DISTANCE
108,209,475km
149,598,262km
MEAN ORBIT VELOCITY
126,074km/h
107,218km/h
ORBIT ECCENTRICITY
0.00677672
0.01671123
EQUATORIAL INCLINATION
177.3 degrees (retrograde rotation)
23.4393 degrees
EQUATORIAL RADIUS
6,051.8km
6,371.00km
EQUATORIAL CIRCUMFERENCE
38,024.6km
40,030.2km
VOLUME
928,415,345,893km3
1,083,206,916,846km3
DENSITY
5.243g/cm3
5.513g/cm3
MASS
4,867,320,000,000,000,000,000,000kg
5,972,190,000,000,000,000,000,000kg
SURFACE AREA
460,234,317km2
510,064,472km2
SURFACE GRAVITY
8.87m/s2
9.80665m/s2
ESCAPE VELOCITY
37,296km/h
40,284km/h
ATMOSPHERIC CONSTITUENTS
Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen
Nitrogen, Oxygen

The brightest object in the night sky on Earth (besides our moon), Venus has been observed for
millennia. And as one of just two bodies between Earth and the Sun, Venus periodically passes
across the face of the sun—a phenomenon called a transit. Observing transits of Venus has
helped astronomers study the nearby planet and better understand the solar system and our place
in it. Transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair, occurring in
1631 and 1639; 1761, 1769; 1874, 1882; and 2004, 2012. The next transit isn't until December
2117. Such long gaps occur between transits because Earth's and Venus' orbits around the sun
are inclined differently, so Venus much more often passes between Earth and the sun without
crossing the face of the sun from our perspective.
Spacecraft from several nations have visited Venus, including the Soviet Union’s successful
Venera series made the first landings on the surface of Venus. NASA’s Magellan mission, which
studied Venus from 1990 to 1994, used radar to map 98 percent of the planet’s surface.
Currently, Japan’s Akatsuki is studying Venus from orbit.

Crater Isabella, the second largest impact crafter on Venus with a diameter of 108 miles (175
kilometers), as seen by the Magellan spacecraft's radar. he feature is named in honor of the 15th
Century queen of Spain, Isabella of Castile.

Located at 30 degrees south latitude, 204 degrees east longitude, the crater has two extensive
flow-like structures extending to the south and to the southeast. The end of the southern flow
partially surrounds a pre-existing 25 mile (40 kilometer) circular volcanic shield.

The southeastern flow shows a complex pattern of channels and flow lobes, and is overlain at its
southeastern tip by deposits from a later 12 mile (20 kilometer) diameter impact crater, Cohn (for
Carola Cohn, Australian artist, 1892-1964).

The extensive flows, unique to Venusian impact craters, are a continuing subject of study for a
number of planetary scientists. It is thought that the flows may consist of 'impact melt,' rock
melted by the intense heat released in the impact explosion.

An alternate hypothesis invokes 'debris flows,' which may consist of clouds of hot gases and both
melted and solid rock fragments that race across the landscape during the impact event. That type
of emplacement process is similar to that which occurs in violent eruptions on Earth, such as the
1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines.
Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days.[13] It has the longest
rotation period (243 days) of any planet in the Solar System and rotates in the opposite direction
to most other planets (meaning the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east).[14] It does not have
any natural satellites. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the second-
brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6
– bright enough to cast shadows at night and, rarely, visible to the naked eye in broad daylight.[15]
[16]
Orbiting within Earth's orbit, Venus is an inferior planet and never appears to venture far from
the Sun; its maximum angular distance from the Sun (elongation) is 47.8°.

Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their
similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun, and bulk composition. It is radically different from
Earth in other respects. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting of
more than 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that
of Earth, or roughly the pressure found 900 m (3,000 ft) underwater on Earth. Venus is by far the
hottest planet in the Solar System, with a mean surface temperature of 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F),
even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly
reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible
light. It may have had water oceans in the past,[17][18] but these would have vaporized as the
temperature rose due to a runaway greenhouse effect.[19] The water has probably
photodissociated, and the free hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar
wind because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field.[20] Venus's surface is a dry desertscape
interspersed with slab-like rocks and is periodically resurfaced by volcanism.

As one of the brightest objects in the sky, Venus has been a major fixture in human culture for as
long as records have existed. It has been made sacred to gods of many cultures, and has been a
prime inspiration for writers and poets as the morning star and evening star. Venus was the
first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky, as early as the second millennium BC. [21]

As the planet with the closest approach to Earth, Venus has been a prime target for early
interplanetary exploration. It was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft (Mariner 2
in 1962), and the first to be successfully landed on (by Venera 7 in 1970). Venus's thick clouds
render observation of its surface impossible in visible light, and the first detailed maps did not
emerge until the arrival of the Magellan orbiter in 1991. Plans have been proposed for rovers or
more complex missions, but they are hindered by Venus's hostile surface conditions.

Physical characteristics
Venus is one of the four terrestrial planets in the Solar System, meaning that it is a rocky body
like Earth. It is similar to Earth in size and mass, and is often described as Earth's "sister" or
"twin".[22] The diameter of Venus is 12,103.6 km (7,520.8 mi)—only 638.4 km (396.7 mi) less
than Earth's—and its mass is 81.5% of Earth's. Conditions on the Venusian surface differ
radically from those on Earth because its dense atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide, with most
of the remaining 3.5% being nitrogen.[23]
Geography

The Venusian surface was a subject of speculation until some of its secrets were revealed by
planetary science in the 20th century. Venera landers in 1975 and 1982 returned images of a
surface covered in sediment and relatively angular rocks.[24] The surface was mapped in detail by
Magellan in 1990–91. The ground shows evidence of extensive volcanism, and the sulfur in the
atmosphere may indicate that there have been recent eruptions.[25][26]

About 80% of the Venusian surface is covered by smooth, volcanic plains, consisting of 70%
plains with wrinkle ridges and 10% smooth or lobate plains.[27] Two highland "continents" make
up the rest of its surface area, one lying in the planet's northern hemisphere and the other just
south of the equator. The northern continent is called Ishtar Terra after Ishtar, the Babylonian
goddess of love, and is about the size of Australia. Maxwell Montes, the highest mountain on
Venus, lies on Ishtar Terra. Its peak is 11 km (7 mi) above the Venusian average surface
elevation.[28] The southern continent is called Aphrodite Terra, after the Greek goddess of love,
and is the larger of the two highland regions at roughly the size of South America. A network of
fractures and faults covers much of this area.[29]

The absence of evidence of lava flow accompanying any of the visible calderas remains an
enigma. The planet has few impact craters, demonstrating that the surface is relatively young,
approximately 300–600 million years old.[30][31] Venus has some unique surface features in
addition to the impact craters, mountains, and valleys commonly found on rocky planets. Among
these are flat-topped volcanic features called "farra", which look somewhat like pancakes and
range in size from 20 to 50 km (12 to 31 mi) across, and from 100 to 1,000 m (330 to 3,280 ft)
high; radial, star-like fracture systems called "novae"; features with both radial and concentric
fractures resembling spider webs, known as "arachnoids"; and "coronae", circular rings of
fractures sometimes surrounded by a depression. These features are volcanic in origin.[32]

Most Venusian surface features are named after historical and mythological women. [33]
Exceptions are Maxwell Montes, named after James Clerk Maxwell, and highland regions Alpha
Regio, Beta Regio, and Ovda Regio. The latter three features were named before the current
system was adopted by the International Astronomical Union, the body which oversees planetary
nomenclature.[34]

The longitudes of physical features on Venus are expressed relative to its prime meridian. The
original prime meridian passed through the radar-bright spot at the centre of the oval feature Eve,
located south of Alpha Regio.[35] After the Venera missions were completed, the prime meridian
was redefined to pass through the central peak in the crater Ariadne.[36][37]

Surface geology

Much of the Venusian surface appears to have been shaped by volcanic activity. Venus has
several times as many volcanoes as Earth, and it has 167 large volcanoes that are over 100 km
(62 mi) across. The only volcanic complex of this size on Earth is the Big Island of Hawaii.[32]:154
This is not because Venus is more volcanically active than Earth, but because its crust is older.
Earth's oceanic crust is continually recycled by subduction at the boundaries of tectonic plates,
and has an average age of about 100 million years,[38] whereas the Venusian surface is estimated
to be 300–600 million years old.[30][32]

Several lines of evidence point to ongoing volcanic activity on Venus. During the Soviet Venera
program, the Venera 9 orbiter obtained spectroscopic evidence of lightning on Venus,[39] and the
Venera 12 descent probe obtained additional evidence of lightning and thunder.[40][41] The
European Space Agency's Venus Express in 2007 detected whistler waves further confirming the
occurrence of lightning on Venus.[42][43] One possibility is that ash from a volcanic eruption was
generating the lightning. Another piece of evidence comes from measurements of sulfur dioxide
concentrations in the atmosphere, which dropped by a factor of 10 between 1978 and 1986,
jumped in 2006, and again declined 10-fold.[44] This may mean that levels had been boosted
several times by large volcanic eruptions.[45][46]

In 2008 and 2009, the first direct evidence for ongoing volcanism was observed by Venus
Express, in the form of four transient localized infrared hot spots within the rift zone Ganis
Chasma,[47][n 1] near the shield volcano Maat Mons. Three of the spots were observed in more than
one successive orbit. These spots are thought to represent lava freshly released by volcanic
eruptions.[48][49] The actual temperatures are not known, because the size of the hot spots could
not be measured, but are likely to have been in the 800–1,100 K (527–827 °C; 980–1,520 °F)
range, relative to a normal temperature of 740 K (467 °C; 872 °F).[50]

Impact craters on the surface of Venus (false-colour image reconstructed from radar data)

Almost a thousand impact craters on Venus are evenly distributed across its surface. On other
cratered bodies, such as Earth and the Moon, craters show a range of states of degradation. On
the Moon, degradation is caused by subsequent impacts, whereas on Earth it is caused by wind
and rain erosion. On Venus, about 85% of the craters are in pristine condition. The number of
craters, together with their well-preserved condition, indicates the planet underwent a global
resurfacing event about 300–600 million years ago,[30][31] followed by a decay in volcanism.[51]
Whereas Earth's crust is in continuous motion, Venus is thought to be unable to sustain such a
process. Without plate tectonics to dissipate heat from its mantle, Venus instead undergoes a
cyclical process in which mantle temperatures rise until they reach a critical level that weakens
the crust. Then, over a period of about 100 million years, subduction occurs on an enormous
scale, completely recycling the crust.[32]
Venusian craters range from 3 to 280 km (2 to 174 mi) in diameter. No craters are smaller than
3 km, because of the effects of the dense atmosphere on incoming objects. Objects with less than
a certain kinetic energy are slowed down so much by the atmosphere that they do not create an
impact crater.[52] Incoming projectiles less than 50 m (160 ft) in diameter will fragment and burn
up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground.[53]

Internal structure

The internal structure of Venus – the crust (outer layer), the mantle (middle layer) and the core (yellow
inner layer)

Without seismic data or knowledge of its moment of inertia, little direct information is available
about the internal structure and geochemistry of Venus.[54] The similarity in size and density
between Venus and Earth suggests they share a similar internal structure: a core, mantle, and
crust. Like that of Earth, the Venusian core is at least partially liquid because the two planets
have been cooling at about the same rate.[55] The slightly smaller size of Venus means pressures
are 24% lower in its deep interior than Earth's.[56] The principal difference between the two
planets is the lack of evidence for plate tectonics on Venus, possibly because its crust is too
strong to subduct without water to make it less viscous. This results in reduced heat loss from the
planet, preventing it from cooling and providing a likely explanation for its lack of an internally
generated magnetic field.[57] Instead, Venus may lose its internal heat in periodic major
resurfacing events.[30]

Atmosphere and climate

Cloud structure in the Venusian atmosphere in 1979, revealed by observations in the ultraviolet band by
Pioneer Venus Orbiter

Global radar view of Venus (without the clouds) from Magellan between 1990 and 1994

Main article: Atmosphere of Venus

Venus has an extremely dense atmosphere composed of 96.5% carbon dioxide, 3.5% nitrogen,
and traces of other gases, most notably sulfur dioxide.[58] The mass of its atmosphere is 93 times
that of Earth's, whereas the pressure at its surface is about 92 times that at Earth's—a pressure
equivalent to that at a depth of nearly 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) under Earth's oceans. The density at
the surface is 65 kg/m3, 6.5% that of water or 50 times as dense as Earth's atmosphere at 293 K
(20 °C; 68 °F) at sea level. The CO
2-rich atmosphere generates the strongest greenhouse effect in the Solar System, creating surface
temperatures of at least 735 K (462 °C; 864 °F).[13][59] This makes Venus's surface hotter than
Mercury's, which has a minimum surface temperature of 53 K (−220 °C; −364 °F) and maximum
surface temperature of 700 K (427 °C; 801 °F),[60][61] even though Venus is nearly twice
Mercury's distance from the Sun and thus receives only 25% of Mercury's solar irradiance. This
temperature is higher than that used for sterilization.
Studies have suggested that billions of years ago Venus's atmosphere was much more like Earth's
than it is now, and that there may have been substantial quantities of liquid water on the surface,
but after a period of 600 million to several billion years,[62] a runaway greenhouse effect was
caused by the evaporation of that original water, which generated a critical level of greenhouse
gases in its atmosphere.[63] Although the surface conditions on Venus are no longer hospitable to
any Earth-like life that may have formed before this event, there is speculation on the possibility
that life exists in the upper cloud layers of Venus, 50 km (31 mi) up from the surface, where the
temperature ranges between 303 and 353 K (30 and 80 °C; 86 and 176 °F) but the environment is
acidic.[64][65][66]

Thermal inertia and the transfer of heat by winds in the lower atmosphere mean that the
temperature of Venus's surface does not vary significantly between the night and day sides,
despite Venus's extremely slow rotation. Winds at the surface are slow, moving at a few
kilometres per hour, but because of the high density of the atmosphere at the surface, they exert a
significant amount of force against obstructions, and transport dust and small stones across the
surface. This alone would make it difficult for a human to walk through, even if the heat,
pressure, and lack of oxygen were not a problem.[67]

Above the dense CO

2 layer are thick clouds consisting mainly of sulfuric acid, which is formed by sulfur dioxide and
water through a chemical reaction resulting in sulfuric acid hydrate. Additionally, the atmosphere
consists of approximately 1% ferric chloride.[68][69] Other possible constituents of the cloud
particles are ferric sulfate, aluminium chloride and phosphoric anhydride. Clouds at different
levels have different compositions and particle size distributions.[68] These clouds reflect and
scatter about 90% of the sunlight that falls on them back into space, and prevent visual
observation of Venus's surface. The permanent cloud cover means that although Venus is closer
than Earth to the Sun, it receives less sunlight on the ground. Strong 300 km/h (185 mph) winds
at the cloud tops go around Venus about every four to five Earth days.[70] Winds on Venus move
at up to 60 times the speed of its rotation, whereas Earth's fastest winds are only 10–20% rotation
speed.[71]

The surface of Venus is effectively isothermal; it retains a constant temperature not only between
day and night sides but between the equator and the poles.[3][72] Venus's minute axial tilt—less
than 3°, compared to 23° on Earth—also minimises seasonal temperature variation. [73] The only
appreciable variation in temperature occurs with altitude. The highest point on Venus, Maxwell
Montes, is therefore the coolest point on Venus, with a temperature of about 655 K (380 °C;
715 °F) and an atmospheric pressure of about 4.5 MPa (45 bar).[74][75] In 1995, the Magellan
spacecraft imaged a highly reflective substance at the tops of the highest mountain peaks that
bore a strong resemblance to terrestrial snow. This substance likely formed from a similar
process to snow, albeit at a far higher temperature. Too volatile to condense on the surface, it
rose in gaseous form to higher elevations, where it is cooler and could precipitate. The identity of
this substance is not known with certainty, but speculation has ranged from elemental tellurium
to lead sulfide (galena).[76]

The clouds of Venus may be capable of producing lightning.[77] The existence of lightning in the
atmosphere of Venus has been controversial since the first suspected bursts were detected by the
Soviet Venera probes. In 2006–07, Venus Express clearly detected whistler mode waves, the
signatures of lightning. Their intermittent appearance indicates a pattern associated with weather
activity. According to these measurements, the lightning rate is at least half of that on Earth. [42] In
2007, Venus Express discovered that a huge double atmospheric vortex exists at the south pole.
[78][79]

Venus Express also discovered, in 2011, that an ozone layer exists high in the atmosphere of
Venus.[80] On 29 January 2013, ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of Venus streams
outwards in a manner similar to "the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar
conditions."[81][82]

In December 2015 and to a lesser extent in April and May 2016, researchers working on Japan's
Akatsuki mission observed bow shapes in the atmosphere of Venus. This was considered direct
evidence of the existence of perhaps the largest stationary gravity waves in the solar system.[83][84]
[85]

Magnetic field and core

In 1967, Venera 4 found Venus's magnetic field to be much weaker than that of Earth. This
magnetic field is induced by an interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind,[88][89]
rather than by an internal dynamo as in the Earth's core. Venus's small induced magnetosphere
provides negligible protection to the atmosphere against cosmic radiation.

The lack of an intrinsic magnetic field at Venus was surprising, given that it is similar to Earth in
size and was expected also to contain a dynamo at its core. A dynamo requires three things: a
conducting liquid, rotation, and convection. The core is thought to be electrically conductive and,
although its rotation is often thought to be too slow, simulations show it is adequate to produce a
dynamo.[90][91] This implies that the dynamo is missing because of a lack of convection in Venus's
core. On Earth, convection occurs in the liquid outer layer of the core because the bottom of the
liquid layer is much hotter than the top. On Venus, a global resurfacing event may have shut
down plate tectonics and led to a reduced heat flux through the crust. This caused the mantle
temperature to increase, thereby reducing the heat flux out of the core. As a result, no internal
geodynamo is available to drive a magnetic field. Instead, the heat from the core is being used to
reheat the crust.[92]

One possibility is that Venus has no solid inner core,[93] or that its core is not cooling, so that the
entire liquid part of the core is at approximately the same temperature. Another possibility is that
its core has already completely solidified. The state of the core is highly dependent on the
concentration of sulfur, which is unknown at present.[92]

The weak magnetosphere around Venus means that the solar wind is interacting directly with its
outer atmosphere. Here, ions of hydrogen and oxygen are being created by the dissociation of
neutral molecules from ultraviolet radiation. The solar wind then supplies energy that gives some
of these ions sufficient velocity to escape Venus's gravity field. This erosion process results in a
steady loss of low-mass hydrogen, helium, and oxygen ions, whereas higher-mass molecules,
such as carbon dioxide, are more likely to be retained. Atmospheric erosion by the solar wind
probably led to the loss of most of Venus's water during the first billion years after it formed. [94]
The erosion has increased the ratio of higher-mass deuterium to lower-mass hydrogen in the
atmosphere 100 times compared to the rest of the solar system.[95]

Orbit and rotation

Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 0.72 AU (108 million km; 67 million mi),
and completes an orbit every 224.7 days. Although all planetary orbits are elliptical, Venus's
orbit is the closest to circular, with an eccentricity of less than 0.01.[3] When Venus lies between
Earth and the Sun in inferior conjunction, it makes the closest approach to Earth of any planet at
an average distance of 41 million km (25 million mi).[3] The planet reaches inferior conjunction
every 584 days, on average.[3] Because of the decreasing eccentricity of Earth's orbit, the
minimum distances will become greater over tens of thousands of years. From the year 1 to
5383, there are 526 approaches less than 40 million km; then there are none for about 60,158
years.[96]

All the planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in a anticlockwise direction as viewed from
above Earth's north pole. Most planets also rotate on their axes in an anti-clockwise direction, but
Venus rotates clockwise in retrograde rotation once every 243 Earth days—the slowest rotation
of any planet. Because its rotation is so slow, Venus is very close to spherical.[97] A Venusian
sidereal day thus lasts longer than a Venusian year (243 versus 224.7 Earth days). Venus's
equator rotates at 6.52 km/h (4.05 mph), whereas Earth's rotates at 1,669.8 km/h (1,037.6 mph).
[98]
Venus's rotation has slowed down in the 16 years between the Magellan spacecraft and Venus
Express visits; each Venusian sidereal day has increased by 6.5 minutes in that time span.[99]
Because of the retrograde rotation, the length of a solar day on Venus is significantly shorter than
the sidereal day, at 116.75 Earth days (making the Venusian solar day shorter than Mercury's
176 Earth days).[100] One Venusian year is about 1.92 Venusian solar days.[101] To an observer on
the surface of Venus, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east,[101] although Venus's
opaque clouds prevent observing the Sun from the planet's surface.[102]

Venus may have formed from the solar nebula with a different rotation period and obliquity,
reaching its current state because of chaotic spin changes caused by planetary perturbations and
tidal effects on its dense atmosphere, a change that would have occurred over the course of
billions of years. The rotation period of Venus may represent an equilibrium state between tidal
locking to the Sun's gravitation, which tends to slow rotation, and an atmospheric tide created by
solar heating of the thick Venusian atmosphere.[103][104] The 584-day average interval between
successive close approaches to Earth is almost exactly equal to 5 Venusian solar days,[105] but the
hypothesis of a spin–orbit resonance with Earth has been discounted.[106]

Venus has no natural satellites.[107] It has several trojan asteroids: the quasi-satellite 2002
VE68[108][109] and two other temporary trojans, 2001 CK32 and 2012 XE133.[110] In the 17th century,
Giovanni Cassini reported a moon orbiting Venus, which was named Neith and numerous
sightings were reported over the following 200 years, but most were determined to be stars in the
vicinity. Alex Alemi's and David Stevenson's 2006 study of models of the early Solar System at
the California Institute of Technology shows Venus likely had at least one moon created by a
huge impact event billions of years ago.[111] About 10 million years later, according to the study,
another impact reversed the planet's spin direction and caused the Venusian moon gradually to
spiral inward until it collided with Venus.[112] If later impacts created moons, these were removed
in the same way. An alternative explanation for the lack of satellites is the effect of strong solar
tides, which can destabilize large satellites orbiting the inner terrestrial planets. [107]

Observation

Venus is always brighter than all other planets or stars (except the Sun) as seen from Earth. The second
brightest object on the image is Jupiter.

To the naked eye, Venus appears as a white point of light brighter than any other planet or star
(apart from the Sun).[113] The planet's mean apparent magnitude is -4.14 with a standard deviation
of 0.31.[12] The brightest magnitude occurs during crescent phase about one month before or after
inferior conjunction. Venus fades to about magnitude −3 when it is backlit by the Sun.[114] The
planet is bright enough to be seen in a clear midday sky[115] and is more easily visible when the
Sun is low on the horizon or setting. As an inferior planet, it always lies within about 47° of the
Sun.[116]

Venus "overtakes" Earth every 584 days as it orbits the Sun.[3] As it does so, it changes from the
"Evening Star", visible after sunset, to the "Morning Star", visible before sunrise. Although
Mercury, the other inferior planet, reaches a maximum elongation of only 28° and is often
difficult to discern in twilight, Venus is hard to miss when it is at its brightest. Its greater
maximum elongation means it is visible in dark skies long after sunset. As the brightest point-
like object in the sky, Venus is a commonly misreported "unidentified flying object".

Phases

Main article: Phases of Venus

The phases of Venus and evolution of its apparent diameter

As it orbits the Sun, Venus displays phases like those of the Moon in a telescopic view. The
planet appears as a small and "full" disc when it is on the opposite side of the Sun (at superior
conjunction). Venus shows a larger disc and "quarter phase" at its maximum elongations from
the Sun, and appears its brightest in the night sky. The planet presents a much larger thin
"crescent" in telescopic views as it passes along the near side between Earth and the Sun. Venus
displays its largest size and "new phase" when it is between Earth and the Sun (at inferior
conjunction). Its atmosphere is visible through telescopes by the halo of sunlight refracted
around it.[116]

Transits

Main articles: Transit of Venus and Transit of Venus, 2012

2004 transit of Venus

The Venusian orbit is slightly inclined relative to Earth's orbit; thus, when the planet passes
between Earth and the Sun, it usually does not cross the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus occur
when the planet's inferior conjunction coincides with its presence in the plane of Earth's orbit.
Transits of Venus occur in cycles of 243 years with the current pattern of transits being pairs of
transits separated by eight years, at intervals of about 105.5 years or 121.5 years—a pattern first
discovered in 1639 by the English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks.[117]
The latest pair was June 8, 2004 and June 5–6, 2012. The transit could be watched live from
many online outlets or observed locally with the right equipment and conditions.[118]

The preceding pair of transits occurred in December 1874 and December 1882; the following
pair will occur in December 2117 and December 2125.[119] The oldest film known is the 1874
Passage de Venus, showing the 1874 Venus transit of the sun. Historically, transits of Venus
were important, because they allowed astronomers to determine the size of the astronomical unit,
and hence the size of the Solar System as shown by Horrocks in 1639.[120] Captain Cook's
exploration of the east coast of Australia came after he had sailed to Tahiti in 1768 to observe a
transit of Venus.[121][122]

Pentagram of Venus

The pentagram of Venus. Earth is positioned at the centre of the diagram, and the curve represents the
direction and distance of Venus as a function of time.

The pentagram of Venus is the path that Venus makes as observed from Earth. Successive
inferior conjunctions of Venus repeat very near a 13:8 orbital resonance (Earth orbits 8 times for
every 13 orbits of Venus), shifting 144° upon sequential inferior conjunctions. The resonance
13:8 ratio is approximate. 8/13 is approximately 0.615385 while Venus orbits the Sun in
0.615187 years.[123]

Daylight apparitions

Naked eye observations of Venus during daylight hours exist in several anecdotes and records.
Astronomer Edmund Halley calculated its maximum naked eye brightness in 1716, when many
Londoners were alarmed by its appearance in the daytime. French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
once witnessed a daytime apparition of the planet while at a reception in Luxembourg.[124]
Another historical daytime observation of the planet took place during the inauguration of the
American president Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., on 4 March 1865.[125] Although
naked eye visibility of Venus's phases is disputed, records exist of observations of its crescent.
[126]

Ashen light
A long-standing mystery of Venus observations is the so-called ashen light—an apparent weak
illumination of its dark side, seen when the planet is in the crescent phase. The first claimed
observation of ashen light was made in 1643, but the existence of the illumination has never been
reliably confirmed. Observers have speculated it may result from electrical activity in the
Venusian atmosphere, but it could be illusory, resulting from the physiological effect of
observing a bright, crescent-shaped object.[127][40]

Studies
Main article: Observations and explorations of Venus

Early studies

The "black drop effect" as recorded during the 1769 transit

Though some ancient civilizations referred to Venus both as the "morning star" and as the
"evening star", names that reflect the assumption that these were two separate objects, the
earliest recorded observations of Venus by the ancient Sumerians show that they recognized
Venus as a single object,[128] and associated it with the goddess Inanna.[128][129][130] Inanna's
movements in several of her myths, including Inanna and Shukaletuda and Inanna's Descent into
the Underworld appear to parallel the motion of the planet Venus.[128] The Venus tablet of
Ammisaduqa, believed to have been compiled around the mid-seventeenth century BCE,[131]
shows the Babylonians understood the two were a single object, referred to in the tablet as the
"bright queen of the sky", and could support this view with detailed observations.[132]

The Chinese historically referred to the morning Venus as "the Great White" (Tài-bái 太白) or
"the Opener (Starter) of Brightness" (Qǐ-míng 啟明), and the evening Venus as "the Excellent
West One" (Cháng-gēng 長庚).[133]
The ancient Greeks also initially believed Venus to be two separate stars: Phosphorus, the
morning star, and Hesperus, the evening star. Pliny the Elder credited the realization that they
were a single object to Pythagoras in the sixth century BCE,[134] while Diogenes Laërtius argued
that Parmenides was probably responsible for this rediscovery.[135] Though they recognized
Venus as a single object, the ancient Romans continued to designate the morning aspect of
Venus as Lucifer, literally "Light-Bringer", and the evening aspect as Vesper, both of which are
literal translations of their traditional Greek names.

In the second century, in his astronomical treatise Almagest, Ptolemy theorized that both
Mercury and Venus are located between the Sun and the Earth. The 11th-century Persian
astronomer Avicenna claimed to have observed the transit of Venus,[136] which later astronomers
took as confirmation of Ptolemy's theory.[137] In the 12th century, the Andalusian astronomer Ibn
Bajjah observed "two planets as black spots on the face of the Sun"; these were thought to be the
transits of Venus and Mercury by 13th-century Maragha astronomer Qotb al-Din Shirazi, though
this cannot be true as there were no Venus transits in Ibn Bajjah's lifetime.[138][n 2]

Galileo's discovery that Venus showed phases (although remaining near the Sun in Earth's sky) proved
that it orbits the Sun and not Earth

When the Italian physicist Galileo Galilei first observed the planet in the early 17th century, he
found it showed phases like the Moon, varying from crescent to gibbous to full and vice versa.
When Venus is furthest from the Sun in the sky, it shows a half-lit phase, and when it is closest
to the Sun in the sky, it shows as a crescent or full phase. This could be possible only if Venus
orbited the Sun, and this was among the first observations to clearly contradict the Ptolemaic
geocentric model that the Solar System was concentric and centred on Earth.[141][142]

The 1639 transit of Venus was accurately predicted by Jeremiah Horrocks and observed by him
and his friend, William Crabtree, at each of their respective homes, on 4 December 1639 (24
November under the Julian calendar in use at that time).[143]

The atmosphere of Venus was discovered in 1761 by Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov.[144]
[145]
Venus's atmosphere was observed in 1790 by German astronomer Johann Schröter. Schröter
found when the planet was a thin crescent, the cusps extended through more than 180°. He
correctly surmised this was due to scattering of sunlight in a dense atmosphere. Later, American
astronomer Chester Smith Lyman observed a complete ring around the dark side of the planet
when it was at inferior conjunction, providing further evidence for an atmosphere.[146] The
atmosphere complicated efforts to determine a rotation period for the planet, and observers such
as Italian-born astronomer Giovanni Cassini and Schröter incorrectly estimated periods of about
24 h from the motions of markings on the planet's apparent surface.[147]

Ground-based research

Modern telescopic view of Venus from Earth's surface

Little more was discovered about Venus until the 20th century. Its almost featureless disc gave
no hint what its surface might be like, and it was only with the development of spectroscopic,
radar and ultraviolet observations that more of its secrets were revealed. The first ultraviolet
observations were carried out in the 1920s, when Frank E. Ross found that ultraviolet
photographs revealed considerable detail that was absent in visible and infrared radiation. He
suggested this was due to a dense, yellow lower atmosphere with high cirrus clouds above it.[148]

Spectroscopic observations in the 1900s gave the first clues about the Venusian rotation. Vesto
Slipher tried to measure the Doppler shift of light from Venus, but found he could not detect any
rotation. He surmised the planet must have a much longer rotation period than had previously
been thought.[149] Later work in the 1950s showed the rotation was retrograde. Radar observations
of Venus were first carried out in the 1960s, and provided the first measurements of the rotation
period, which were close to the modern value.[150]

Radar observations in the 1970s revealed details of the Venusian surface for the first time. Pulses
of radio waves were beamed at the planet using the 300 m (980 ft) radio telescope at Arecibo
Observatory, and the echoes revealed two highly reflective regions, designated the Alpha and
Beta regions. The observations also revealed a bright region attributed to mountains, which was
called Maxwell Montes.[151] These three features are now the only ones on Venus that do not have
female names.[34]

Exploration

Main article: Observations and explorations of Venus

Artist's impression of Mariner 2, launched in 1962, a skeletal, bottle-shaped spacecraft with a large radio
dish on top

The first robotic space probe mission to Venus, and the first to any planet, began with the Soviet
Venera program in 1961.[152] The United States' exploration of Venus had its first success with
the Mariner 2 mission on 14 December 1962, becoming the world's first successful
interplanetary mission, passing 34,833 km (21,644 mi) above the surface of Venus, and
gathering data on the planet's atmosphere.[153][154]

On 18 October 1967, the Soviet Venera 4 successfully entered the atmosphere and deployed
science experiments. Venera 4 showed the surface temperature was hotter than Mariner 2 had
calculated, at almost 500 °C (932 °F), determined that the atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide
(CO
2), and discovered that Venus's atmosphere was considerably denser than Venera 4's designers

had anticipated.[155] The joint Venera 4–Mariner 5 data were analysed by a combined Soviet–
American science team in a series of colloquia over the following year,[156] in an early example of
space cooperation.[157]

In 1974, Mariner 10 swung by Venus on its way to Mercury and took ultraviolet photographs of
the clouds, revealing the extraordinarily high wind speeds in the Venusian atmosphere.

Global view of Venus in ultraviolet light done by Mariner 10.

In 1975, the Soviet Venera 9 and 10 landers transmitted the first images from the surface of
Venus, which were in black and white. In 1982 the first colour images of the surface were
obtained with the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 landers.

NASA obtained additional data in 1978 with the Pioneer Venus project that consisted of two
separate missions:[158] Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Pioneer Venus Multiprobe.[159] The successful
Soviet Venera program came to a close in October 1983, when Venera 15 and 16 were placed in
orbit to conduct detailed mapping of 25% of Venus's terrain (from the north pole to 30°N
latitude)[160]

Several other Venus flybys took place in the 1980s and 1990s that increased the understanding of
Venus, including Vega 1 (1985), Vega 2 (1985), Galileo (1990), Magellan (1994), Cassini–
Huygens (1998), and MESSENGER (2006). Then, Venus Express by the European Space Agency
(ESA) entered orbit around Venus in April 2006. Equipped with seven scientific instruments,
Venus Express provided unprecedented long-term observation of Venus's atmosphere. ESA
concluded that mission in December 2014.

As of 2016, Japan's Akatsuki is in a highly elliptical orbit around Venus since 7 December 2015,
and there are several probing proposals under study by Roscosmos, NASA, and India's ISRO.

In 2016, NASA announced that it was planning a rover, the Automaton Rover for Extreme
Environments, designed to survive for an extended time in Venus's environmental conditions. It
would be controlled by a mechanical computer and driven by wind power.[161]

In culture
Main article: Venus in culture

Venus is portrayed just to the right of the large cypress tree in Vincent van Gogh's 1889 painting The
Starry Night.[162][163]

Venus is a primary feature of the night sky, and so has been of remarkable importance in
mythology, astrology and fiction throughout history and in different cultures. Classical poets
such as Homer, Sappho, Ovid and Virgil spoke of the star and its light.[164] Poets such as William
Blake, Robert Frost, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth wrote odes to it.[165]
Because the movements of Venus appear to be discontinuous (it disappears due to its proximity
to the sun, for many days at a time, and then reappears on the other horizon), some cultures did
not recognize Venus as single entity; instead, they assumed it to be two separate stars on each
horizon: the morning and evening star. Nonetheless, a cylinder seal from the Jemdet Nasr period
indicates that the ancient Sumerians already knew that the morning and evening stars were the
same celestial object. The Sumerians associated the planet with the goddess Inanna (known as
Ishtar by the later Akkadians and Babylonians), and their myths of Inanna are often allegories for
the apparent motions and cycles of the planet.[128] In the Old Babylonian period, the planet Venus
was known as Ninsi'anna, and later as Dilbat.[166] The name "Ninsi'anna" translates to "divine
lady, illumination of heaven", which refers to Venus as the brightest visible "star". Earlier
spellings of the name were written with the cuneiform sign si4 (= SU, meaning "to be red"), and
the original meaning may have been "divine lady of the redness of heaven", in reference to the
color of the morning and evening sky.[167] Venus is described in Babylonian cuneiform texts such
as the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, which relates observations that possibly date from 1600 BC.
[168]

In Chinese the planet is called Jīn-xīng (金星), the golden planet of the metal element. In India
Shukra Graha ("the planet Shukra") which is named after a powerful saint Shukra. Shukra which
is used in Indian Vedic astrology[169] means "clear, pure" or "brightness, clearness" in Sanskrit.
One of the nine Navagraha, it is held to affect wealth, pleasure and reproduction; it was the son
of Bhrgu, preceptor of the Daityas, and guru of the Asuras.[170] The word Shukra is also
associated with semen, or generation. Venus is known as Kejora in Indonesian and Malay.
Modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures refer to the planet literally as the "metal star" (金
星), based on the Five elements.[171][172][173]

The Ancient Egyptians and Greeks believed Venus to be two separate bodies, a morning star and
an evening star. The Egyptians knew the morning star as Tioumoutiri and the evening star as
Ouaiti.[174] The Greeks used the names Phosphoros (meaning "light-bringer"; alternately
Heosphoros, meaning "dawn-bringer") for the morning star, and Hesperus (meaning "Western
one") for the evening star.[175] Though by the Roman era they were recognized as one celestial
object, known as "the star of Venus", the traditional two Greek names continued to be used,
though usually translated to Latin as Lucifer and Hesperus.[175][176]

Venus was considered the most important celestial body observed by the Maya, who called it
Chac ek,[177] or Noh Ek', "the Great Star".[178]

Modern fiction

See also: Venus in fiction

With the invention of the telescope, the idea that Venus was a physical world and possible
destination began to take form.

The impenetrable Venusian cloud cover gave science fiction writers free rein to speculate on
conditions at its surface; all the more so when early observations showed that not only was it
similar in size to Earth, it possessed a substantial atmosphere. Closer to the Sun than Earth, the
planet was frequently depicted as warmer, but still habitable by humans.[179] The genre reached
its peak between the 1930s and 1950s, at a time when science had revealed some aspects of
Venus, but not yet the harsh reality of its surface conditions. Findings from the first missions to
Venus showed the reality to be quite different, and brought this particular genre to an end.[180] As
scientific knowledge of Venus advanced, so science fiction authors tried to keep pace,
particularly by conjecturing human attempts to terraform Venus.[181]

Symbol

Main article: Venus symbol

The astronomical symbol for Venus is the same as that used in biology for the female sex: a
circle with a small cross beneath.[182] The Venus symbol also represents femininity, and in
Western alchemy stood for the metal copper.[182] Polished copper has been used for mirrors from
antiquity, and the symbol for Venus has sometimes been understood to stand for the mirror of the
goddess.[182]

Habitability
Main article: Life on Venus

See also: Colonization of Venus

The speculation of the existence of life on Venus decreased significantly since the early 1960s,
when spacecraft began studying Venus and it became clear that the conditions on Venus are
extreme compared to those on Earth.

The fact that Venus is located closer to the Sun than Earth, raising temperatures on the surface to
nearly 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F), the atmospheric pressure is ninety times that of Earth, and the
extreme impact of the greenhouse effect, make water-based life as currently known unlikely. A
few scientists have speculated that thermoacidophilic extremophile microorganisms might exist
in the lower-temperature, acidic upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere.[183][184][185] The
atmospheric pressure and temperature fifty kilometres above the surface are similar to those at
Earth's surface. This has led to proposals to use aerostats (lighter-than-air balloons) for initial
exploration and ultimately for permanent "floating cities" in the Venusian atmosphere. [186]
Among the many engineering challenges are the dangerous amounts of sulfuric acid at these
heights.[186]