10 Interesting Facts About Venus (The Brightest Planet!!!)

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the third brightest object in Earth's sky after the Sun and Moon. It is sometimes referred to as the sister planet to Earth, because their size and mass are so similar. Venus is also the closest planet to Earth. The surface of Venus is hidden by an opaque layer of clouds which are formed from sulphuric acid.

The planet is named for Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty and is the second largest terrestrial planet.

Interesting Facts about Venus:

Venus is the second brightest natural object in the sky

The planet has an apparent magnitude of -3.8 to -4.6, which makes it visible on a bright, clear day.

Venus is sometimes referred to as the “morning star” and “evening star”

Early civilizations thought Venus was two different bodies, called Phosphorus and Hesperus by the Greeks, and Lucifer and Vesper by the Romans. This is because when its orbit around the Sun overtakes Earth’s orbit, it changes from being visible after sunset to being visible before sunrise. Mayan astronomers made detailed observations of Venus as early as 650 AD.

One day on Venus is longer than one Year

Due to the slow rotation on its axis, it takes 243 Earth-days to complete one rotation. The orbit of the planet takes 225 Earth-days which make a year, shorter on Venus than a year on Earth.

Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty

Venus is the only planet named after a female God, may have been named for the most beautiful deity of her pantheon because it shone the brightest of the five planets known to ancient astronomers.

This may be, in part, due the brightness of the planet and may date back to the Babylonians in 1581 who referred to Venus as “bright queen of the sky”.

Venus is sometimes called Earth’s sister planet

This is because their size is very similar, there is only a 638 km different in diameter and Venus has around 81% of Earth’s mass. They are also similarly located with Venus being the closest planet to Earth. Both planets also have a central core, a molten mantle and a crust.

Venus has no moons nor rings

Billions of years ago, the climate of Venus may been similar to that of Earth and scientists believe that, Venus once possessed large amounts of water or oceans. However, due to the high temperatures produce from the extreme greenhouse effect, this water boiled off long ago and the surface of the planet is now too hot and hostile to sustain life.

Venus rotate in the opposite direction to other planets

Most other planets rotate counter-clockwise on their axis, however Venus, like Uranus, rotates clockwise. This is known as a retrograde rotation and may have been caused by a collision with an asteroid or other object which caused the planet to change its rotational path.

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system with an average surface temperature of 462°C

Also, Venus doesn’t tilt on its axis which means there are no seasons either. The atmosphere is a dense 96.5% carbon dioxide which traps heat and caused the greenhouse effect which evaporated any water sources billions of years ago.

The temperature on Venus doesn’t vary much between the night and day. This is due to the slow movement of the solar winds across the surface of the planet.

The estimated age of the Venusian surface is around 300-400 million years old

By comparison, the surface of the Earth is about 100 million years old. Six mountainous regions make up about one-third of the Venusian surface. One mountain range, called Maxwell, is about 870 Kilometer long and reaches up to some 11.3 Kilometer high, making it the highest feature on the planet.

Venus also possesses a number of surface features unlike anything on Earth. For example, Venus has coronae, or crowns, ring-like structures that range from roughly 155 to 580 kilometer wide. Scientists believe these formed when hot material beneath the crust rises up, warping the planet's surface. Venus also has tesserae, or tiles raised areas in which many ridges and valleys have formed in different directions.

The atmospheric pressure of Venus is 92 times stronger than Earth’s

This means that any small asteroids entering the atmosphere of Venus are crushed by the immense pressure, which is why there are no small surface craters on the planet. This pressure is equivalent to being around 1,000 km under Earth’s oceans.

Venus has a very weak magnetic field

This surprised scientists, who expected Venus to have a magnetic field similar in strength to Earth’s. One possible reason for this is that Venus has no solid inner core, or that its core is not cooling. Second possible reason may be that Venus is not spinning about its own axis as earth spins.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth

When Venus is in line with Earth and the Sun, it is the closest planet to us, at an average distance of 41 million kilometers away.