Venus, the second planet from the sun and Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor is an oddity in some ways. The recent, hellish planet spins backward and would possibly even host life in its impenetrable clouds.
It’s the sixth largest planet within the solar system and is typically known as ‘Earth’s twin’ because the pair are comparable in dimension and density. However do not be fooled, they’re removed from similar and are radically completely different in virtually each different facet.
Right here we discover this eccentric planet with 20 attention-grabbing information about Venus.
Associated: Venera timeline: The Soviet Union’s Venus missions in pictures
Lee Cavendish holds a level in Observational Astronomy from the College of South Wales, United Kingdom, the place his analysis pursuits targeted on finding out the principle kinds of eclipsing binary star programs: Algol, Beta Lyrae and W Ursae Majoris.
1. Venus has a wealthy historical past
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Research of Venus could be traced again to the traditional Babylonians in 1600 BCE. They tracked the motion of a number of planets and stars. The oldest astronomical doc on report is a Babylonian diary of Venus’s appearances over 21 years. Venus performed a critical half within the mythology of historical civilizations, together with the Mayans and Greeks. The identify ‘Venus’ comes from the Roman goddess of affection and wonder.
2. The stress’s on!
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Strolling round Venus can be an insufferable expertise for a number of causes, however certainly one of them is the intense pressures on the floor. The ambiance creates air stress that’s over 90 instances the air stress on Earth, which has similarities to the stress round 0.6 miles (one kilometer) deep within the ocean.
It is identical to Earth (effectively kind of)
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When wanting purely on the bodily parameters of Venus, it’s remarkably much like Earth. They’re each virtually the identical in dimension and density, their compositions are comparable they usually each seem to have comparatively younger surfaces which might be surrounded by an environment with clouds. It is value stating that Venus’ clouds are primarily sulphuric acid although, which is not one thing that you simply’d need raining down on you!
4. It has many phases
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Venus experiences completely different phases, identical to the moon. As Venus travels round the sun inside the orbit of Earth, it adjustments between a ‘morning star‘ and an ‘night star’ roughly each nine-and-a-half months. Throughout this era it shifts between completely different percentages of illumination, a trait that everybody usually associates with the moon.
5. Transits are very uncommon
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Venus is certainly one of two planets that orbit the sun inside the orbital path of Earth. Together with Mercury, these two planets can discover themselves between Earth and the sun, generally making a silhouette that strikes throughout the sun over hours. These journeys are often called ‘transits’, and Venus is thought to transit in pairs, with over a century separating the pairs, making it a really uncommon occasion.
6. It is hellishly scorching
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Venus is the most popular planet within the solar system, even hotter than the dayside of Mercury, which has temperatures of 801 levels Fahrenheit (427 levels Celsius). Due to Venus’ thick, carbon dioxide-rich ambiance, the warmth is effectively retained, creating floor temperatures increased than 880 levels F (470 levels C).
7. Venusian volcanicity
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So as to add to the hellish picture of Venus, it additionally has probably the most volcanoes current on the floor of all planets within the solar system. On Earth, there are 1,500 identified energetic volcanoes, and Mars is greatest identified for the biggest volcano within the solar system, Olympus Mons. Nonetheless, Venus has over 1,600 identified main volcanoes, and that is not together with the smaller ones or any that have not been detected but.
8. No companion
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Venus and Mercury are the one planets in our solar system that wouldn’t have a moon of their very own. It is a bit extra comprehensible as to why Mercury would not have a moon, as a result of its shut proximity to the sun has a adverse impact on any contenders, and it’s even smaller than some identified moons corresponding to Jupiter‘s Ganymede and Saturn‘s Titan. Nonetheless, researchers have argued that the rationale Venus would not have a moon is not as simplistic.
There are two theories: the primary is that any moon that Venus had was stolen by the sun’s gravity. The second is named the ‘double-impact principle’, which states that a big celestial physique hit Venus billions of years in the past and created a moon, in an analogous technique to how Earth acquired its lunar companion. However a number of million years later, an excellent greater object hit Venus, inflicting the retrograde rotation, weakening the tidal forces and sending the moon to sink into Venus, by no means to be seen once more.
9. Life within the clouds?
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Opposite to what the earlier information have strongly steered, researchers have proposed that life might be discovered on Venus — simply not on the floor. A study by Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center steered that microbial life might be current within the cloud tops.
Microbial life on Earth has been discovered at altitudes of 25 miles (41 km), and these researchers have stated that circumstances on Venus that may be favorable for all times may exist within the clouds at altitudes of 30 to 32 miles (48 to 51 km). Right here, temperatures can be roughly 140 levels F (60 levels C) and pressures can be much like Earth at sea stage.
10. A day seems like a yr
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On Venus, that may be very a lot the case. One Venusian day, which is one full rotation on its axis, takes 243 Earth days, making it the longest day of another planet within the solar system. Even a yr on Venus is shorter, because it takes 224.7 Earth days to finish one revolution across the sun.
11. ‘Backwards’ rotation
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One other trait that makes Venus completely different from many of the planets within the solar system is its rotation. The same old routine for planets is to spin anti-clockwise on their axis, however Venus is an oddball and flaunts a clockwise rotation. The main principle as to why Venus and Uranus have what is named a ‘retrograde rotation’ is that they had been smacked by massive objects early of their historical past. This collision left the planet seeing stars and spinning the mistaken method.
12. What the long run holds
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Researchers wish to perceive each planet within the solar system. Efforts within the late twentieth century confirmed that Venus is a tough planet to look at remotely from the floor, however with new applied sciences and a greater understanding comes revolutionary exploration concepts. Plenty of these new concepts have a typical theme, which is exploring Venus from inside the clouds.
As Venus has extra favorable circumstances within the clouds, with wind speeds that enable an object to journey across the planet a lot sooner than it rotates, scientists want to introduce plane or airships. By using solar and wind energy, and the added assist of buoyancy, robotic missions may turn into a function of Venus within the foreseeable future.
13. Turning again the clock
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Venus wasn’t a lot completely different from Earth as soon as upon a time and will have even supported life. 700 million years in the past, Venus suffered dramatic adjustments in its local weather that noticed it bulk up its ambiance in a course of often called a ‘runaway greenhouse impact’. Earlier than the runaway greenhouse effect took over, it’s believed that Venus had an inexpensive ambiance and will have harbored liquid water for about 2 or 3 billion years. Earlier than carbon dioxide dominated the ambiance and made it too scorching and dense, it’s attainable that Venus as soon as had an atmosphere that would have supported life for billions of years.
14. Lack of a magnetic feeling
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Though it’s sometimes called Earth’s twin, one thing that differentiates the 2 planets deep right down to their cores is that Venus creates a negligible magnetic subject. Planetary scientists consider that Venus has an iron core that’s comparable in dimension to Earth’s. Nonetheless, because of the sluggish rotation of Venus, consequently lowering the movement of the planet’s core, this weakens the planet’s magnetic field or magnetosphere.
15. It has had many spacecraft guests
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Earlier than consideration turned to the exploration of Mars and different planets within the solar system, Venus was the goal that space businesses needed to ship their robotic missions to. This genesis of interplanetary exploration started with numerous spacecraft and launch failures, beginning with the Soviet Union’s Tyazhely Sputnik in February 1961.
The primary craft to intention for Venus skilled a launch failure, and there have since been 41 different missions launched to discover the planet. Of those missions, over 20 have been profitable, and the primary of those to conduct a profitable planetary encounter was NASA’s Mariner 2 space probe on 14 December 1962.
16. Case of the lacking lightning
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Electrical pulses are bursting by way of the heavy ambiance, however the missions which have gone to Venus to seek out them have made it an much more complicated endeavor. Floor-based telescopes and space probes — together with NASA’s Cassini, the European House Company’s Venus Specific and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company’s (JAXA) Akatsuki missions — have had nothing greater than some delicate hints concerning the presence of Venusian lightning. Researchers consider it may nonetheless be current, however it’s simply rather more localized and uncommon, which is why there was no definitive proof but. Or it might be the case that there is not lightning in any respect.
17. Soviet success at Venus
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18. Shining shiny
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As a result of Venus is in such proximity to Earth, it’s the third-brightest celestial object within the night sky, sitting behind the sun and the moon. The Latin nickname for Venus, which is basically unused in fashionable days, is ‘Lucifer’, which interprets to ‘gentle bringer’. Lucifer can also be a reputation for the Satan, which is kind of a coincidence contemplating the hellish circumstances on the floor of Venus.
19. A supply of shadows
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As a result of Venus is the third-brightest object within the evening sky, it’s shiny sufficient to solid shadows on the floor of Earth. Solely two different celestial objects are able to this: the sun and the moon. Nonetheless, excellent eyesight is required to see these Venusian shadows.
20. Bizarre winds
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Though the planet strikes slowly, the clouds transfer throughout the ambiance as soon as each 4 Earth days; this is named ‘superrotation’. This generates speeds of 224 miles (360 km) per hour, which surpasses the speeds of probably the most harmful hurricanes on Earth. The speeds lower with cloud peak, creating winds which might be only a few miles per hour on the floor.
