Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is very nearly the same size as the Earth. It can be seen as a bright star either in the west after sunset or in the east before sunrise, depending on where it is in its orbit. It is bright because it is covered in clouds which reflect much of the sunlight falling on the planet.

For many years the clouds prevented astronomers from observing the surface and so the surface conditions were unknown. It is only since spacecraft have landed on the planet that we have a clear picture of conditions under the cloud layer.

The atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide with a pressure 90 times that of the Earth's atmospheric pressure. The surface temperature is over 450°C, hot enough to melt lead. Wind speeds near the surface are quite low, in the order of a few kilometres an hour but higher in the atmosphere winds can reach over 350 kilometres an hour. The clouds covering the planet are made of droplets of sulphuric acid.

There is no evidence of plate tectonics, so other processes shape the surface of Venus. Many volcanoes dot the surface and eruptions are a major force creating smooth plains of solidified lava which cover a lot of the planet. There are impact craters but the thick atmosphere protects the surface from most incoming objects.

Venus rotates once on its axis in 243 Earth days and makes one orbit around the Sun in 225 Earth days. In other words its day is longer than its year! Even more remarkably it spins in the opposite direction to the Earth and most other planets. Uranus is the only other planet that spins backwards. This is called retrograde spin. From the surface the Sun (what little you could see of it) would rise in the west and set in the east. The inclination of its axis is 177.3°, nearly upside down. The reason for this state of affairs is not known, possibly caused by a collision with another large body early in its history.

Vital statistics for Venus click here >>>

© Matthew Wallace 2006