Venus facts
Rotating in the opposite direction of most of the planets, Venus is the hottest planet, and one of the brightest objects in the sky.
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September 26, 2019
Venus is the second and sixth largest planet in the Sun. Together with Mercury, they are the only planets that do not have a satellite. Although Mercury is close to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet.
Key facts and summary
Due to its proximity to Earth, Venus has been observed many times by ancient astronomers of different cultures, however, the first accurate observation was made by Galileo Galilei in 1610.
Galileo looked at Venus through a telescope and determined that its phases were like those of the moon. This helped to support Copernican's theory that planets revolve around the sun and not, as previously thought.
Because Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the moon and sun, she was named the Roman goddess of beauty and love, the ancient Greeks named her Aphrodite.
In ancient times, Venus was taught in the sky as two different objects: the mourning star and the evening star. In the case of Mercury, this too was mistaken for two different things.
It is the only planet named after a female deity and is the brightest planet in the solar system.
Although it can be easily seen, its surface is covered with thick clouds, so it has long been thought to be like the earth.
When its surface was observed, it was discovered that its clouds were in fact made up of sulfuric acid and water vapor, but more importantly, its temperature was measured at an average of 465 degrees Celsius. Is 900 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to melt lead. .
The nearest planet to the Sun is about 62 degrees warmer than Mercury. It was then concluded that the surface of Venus is the hottest of all the planets and its hopes of resemblance to Earth were dashed. Its thick atmosphere traps heat in a falling greenhouse effect, which contributes greatly to the planet's high temperatures.
Nevertheless, it is still considered to be the sister of the earth, and there are other similarities that support it: they have the same size and density, similar internal structure and similar mass, volume and Environmental components of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
Venus reflects 70% of all the sunlight it receives, which is why it is so bright.
Venus has a radius of 6.051 km or 3.760 miles and a diameter of 12.104 km or 7.521 miles, which is slightly smaller than the Earth.
Venus weighs 4.87 × 1024 kg, or 85% of the Earth. The aforementioned similarities give rise to a similar density. Venus has a density of 5.24 grams per cubic centimeter, while Earth has a density of 5.52.
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun, at a distance of 108.2 million km / 67.24 miles or 0.7 AU that receives sunlight in 6 minutes. Its closest approach to Earth occurs once every 584 days, when the planets catch up with each other. On average, it can reach 25 million miles or about 40 million kilometers from Earth.
It takes Venus 225 days to complete one revolution around the Sun, or in other words, one year of Venus has 225 Earth days. One day or rotation of Venus is longer than one year of Venus: One day of Venus is approximately 243 Earth days.
This is the slowest rotation of any planet, making it the most spherical object after the sun.
At the equator the planet is moving at a speed of about 6.5 kilometers per hour or 4 miles per hour.
It has a minimal eccentric orbit, rotating in almost a perfect circle.
Because of its radiance, Venus has been the most intricate thing in the sky. Many people have misreported it as a UFO, and many still mistakenly report it as a UFO.
Venus has a backward rotation, moving in the opposite direction to most of the planets, only Uranus does. They both move clockwise from east to west.
Venus has mountains, valleys and tens of thousands of volcanoes. The highest mountain on Venus, Maxwell Montes, is 20,000 feet high / 8.8 km, which is similar to Mount Everest, the highest mountain on earth.
Venus has no moon or color system and its magnetic field is weak due to its slow rotation.
It is the most "seen" planet in the solar system, with more than 40 spacecraft.
Venus
It is not possible to determine the exact date of the discovery of Venus. Because of its brilliance, it can be easily seen with the naked eye, meaning that any ancient civilization can be credited with the first observation. However, Copernicus, and later Galileo Galilei are credited with classifying Venus as a planet, while Mikhail Lomonosov is credited with discovering the planet's gaseous atmosphere initially in 1761. This claim was later confirmed by the astronomer Johann Schroeter in 1790.
Although it has been visually observable for as long as mankind remembers, the name Venus is once again a mystery. Venus gained its most famous manicure through the selection of Roman gods and goddesses. Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, a counterpart of the Greek Aphrodite. It was not always known that way. The people of ancient Babylon who identified Venus as an example, named her Sitara Ashtar, their goddess of fertility, love and war.
The female symbol has even been adopted as a symbol of love and strong women on this planet, the first and only one with a feminine name. Before Venus was officially dubbed, the Greeks and Romans inadvertently turned Venus into two different stars.
To the Greeks Venus was both phosphorus and Hesperus, and to the Romans it was known as Lucifer and Vesper. The two countries did not know that the two alleged stars they were referring to were actually one body until further observations were made and its orbit was understood.
Configuration
The theory is that Venus was formed about 4.5 billion years ago when gravity pulled the rotating gas and dust together to form another planet and later settled in its present order.
Distance, size and quantity
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun, at a distance of 108.2 million km / 67.24 miles or 0.7 AU that receives sunlight in 6 minutes. Venus has a radius of 6.051 km or 3.760 miles and a diameter of 12.104 km or 7.521 miles, which is slightly smaller than the Earth.
It weighs 4.87 × 1024 kg, or 85% of the earth's surface. The aforementioned similarities give rise to a similar density. Venus has a density of 5.24 grams per cubic centimeter, while Earth has a density of 5.52. It is about the same size as the Earth - 928.45 billion cubic kilometers compared to the Earth's 1083.21 billion.
Its closest approach to Earth occurs once every 584 days, when the planets catch up with each other. On average, it can reach 25 million miles or 40 million kilometers from Earth, which is approximately 0.28 AU.
Orbit
One of the reasons why ancient civilizations inadvertently turned Venus into two separate stars - The Morning Star and The Evening Star - was that they did not understand its orbit. Venus is visible only after sunset and only before sunrise when its orbit around the Sun goes beyond the Earth's orbit.
Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 0.72 AU and completes one orbit every 224.7 days. Although the orbits of most planets are elliptical, the orbit of Venus is closest to the circle with eccentricity less than 0.01. When Venus is in the inferior connection between the Earth and the Sun, it forms the closest view of any planet to Earth at a distance of 41 million kilometers or 25 million miles. Venus spends most of her time away from Earth. This, by contrast, makes Mercury the closest planet to Earth, the most abundant of all time.
The orbit is slightly inclined towards the Earth's orbit. When Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, it does not normally cross the face of the Sun.
Venus's transit occurs when the planet's inferior connection coincides with its presence in the Earth's orbital spacecraft.
Venus travels in cycles of 243 years, in which the current pattern of transit is about 105.5 years or 121.5 intervals of transit pairs separated by eight years.
The pentagram of Venice
When plotted geographically - from the point of view of the center of the earth, Venus has a very noticeable rhythm in motion. After 8 years, it returns to the same place in the sky on the same date.
This was known to many ancient civilizations like Maya, it is called the pentagram of Venus.
In eight years, each phenomenon - each relative position of the Earth, Venus and the Sun - occurs five times, and then over the next eight years they repeat almost the same five times. References and Credits - Guy Outwell - Earthsky.
circulation
Venus has a backward rotation, moving in the opposite direction to most of the planets, only Uranus does. They both move clockwise from east to west. Venus orbits once every 243 Earth days, with the slowest rotation of all the planets in the solar system.
This slow rotation also affects its shape, which makes Venus very spherical. One day of Venus is longer than one year of Venus - 225 Earth days. For comparison, the equator of Venus rotates at a speed of 6.52 km per hour while the earth rotates at a speed of 1,674.4 km per hour.
It has been observed that it is slowing down even more. In the 16 years between the Magellan spacecraft and the Venus Express, Venus's rotation has slowed to 6.5 minutes.
Theories suggest that this slow and retrograde rotation is due to the fact that Venus has encountered collisions in the past, while some see it as a state of equilibrium between the Sun's gravitational ocean pools. , Which slows down the circulation, and creates an ecological wave. From the solar heat of the atmosphere of thick Venus.
Axial tilt
Venus has tilted 2.7 degrees from the eclipse plane, meaning it is almost completely inverted. Because of this, Venus does not experience any weather that rotates almost straight.
Structure and geology
Venus is very similar to Earth in its structure. The base is about 2,000 miles or 3,200 kilometers in radius. Above this cover is a veil of hot rock, which is slowly melting due to the internal heat of the planet. As a result, the surface is a thin layer of rock that rises and moves with the change of Venus's veil, creating a volcano.
Its center is at least partially liquid, as both Venus and Earth begin to cool at the same rate. Due to its small size, it is estimated that Venus's pressure in its deep interior is about 24% lower.
About 80% of Venus's surface is covered by flat, volcanic plains, with 70% plain strip and 10% flat or lobbied plains. Venus has two elevated "continents" that make up the rest of its surface. One planet is located in the northern hemisphere and is called Ashtar Terra after the Babylonian goddess Ashtar of love and is about the size of Australia.
The highest mountain on Venus is called Maxwell Montes and it is located here, its peak is about 11 kilometers or 7 miles above the average elevation of Venus.
The second "continent" is located in the southern hemisphere south of the equator, and is named after the Greek goddess Aphrodite Terra. It is one of the two largest South American highlands. There is a network of fractures and faults that cover most of the area. The flow of lava and the absence of evidence of calderas is a mystery.
With a few more small impact pits, it is suggested that the dense atmosphere of Venus burns the small meteorite, and at the same time indicates that its surface is young. As far as we know, Venus does not have tectonic activity like Earth.
Water is thought to help it run, and Venus lost its water long ago due to the greenhouse effect. Although the surface appears young, it has pits that appear to be eroding evenly, pointing to a catastrophic event that re-emerged on Earth about half a billion years ago. All the traits that were old were erased, and over time the big impacts created these new youth pits.
It is believed that a volcano on the surface of Venus recreated the planet. There is ample indirect evidence that volcanic activity continues to this day. Sulfur dioxide levels fell in 1980, which may indicate that a major volcanic eruption occurred in 1870, which released large amounts of gas, which then receded.
The theory is that without tectonics, the gradual emission of lava from the interior of the planet could continue for a long time in one place called "pancake domes".
the environment
The atmosphere is mainly composed of carbon dioxide 96.5% and nitrogen 3.5% which are traces of other gases, especially sulfur dioxide. Venus has dense clouds consisting mainly of droplets of sulfuric acid, about 75-96%.
This thick atmosphere traps the sun's heat, which reflects up to 75% of the sunlight that falls on them. As a result of this atmosphere, the surface temperature is 465 degrees Celsius, more than 900 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to melt lead. The atmosphere is 93 times larger than the Earth's, which is equivalent to about 1 km or 0.62 miles below sea level.
The surface density is 65 kg / m3, 6.5% of the water, or at 293 K (20 ° C; 68 ° F) above sea level, 50 times denser than the Earth's atmosphere.
Despite its slow rotation, strong winds of 300 kilometers per hour (185 miles per hour) on cloud tops revolve around Venus every four to five Earth days. The winds on Venus move 60 times faster than their rotation speed, while the fastest winds on Earth move at only 10-20% rotation speed.
The speed inside the clouds decreases with the height of the clouds, and the surface is estimated to be only a few miles per hour.
The highest point on Venus is Maxwell Montes, so it is the coldest 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).
Magnetic sphere
The size of Venus is similar to Earth's, and regardless of its corresponding iron core, the magnetic field is much weaker than Earth's due to slow rotation and thus is generally considered to be non-magnetic. Goes
However, it has an excited magnetic field created by the solar wind from the sun's magnetic field.
Due to the lack of an internal magnetic field on Venus, the solar wind penetrates relatively deep into the planet's outer sphere and causes considerable damage to the atmosphere. Damage occurs mainly through the tail of the magnetosphere. The ratio of hydrogen to oxygen losses is approximately 2 or approximately stoichiometric, indicating continued loss of water.
Quality of life
It is widely believed that Venus was once a habitable planet with vast oceans, with some even thinking that life would have evolved there and then somehow moved to Earth. Others believe that Venus had oceans, but due to the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is thought that the planet was covered in a liquid of carbon dioxide which eventually evaporated.
It has recently been discovered that there is a large vortex on both the poles of Venus. The altitude is approximately 59 km, which is just above the cloud deck and the air pressure and temperature are tolerable to the earth's standards. Some scientists have speculated. At lower temperatures, acids may be present in the upper layers of the Venus atmosphere.
In August 2019, astronomers reported that the newly discovered long-term pattern of absorption and albedo changes in the planet Venus's atmosphere is due to "unknown absorbers" There may be colonies. It remains to be seen.
Satellites
Theories suggest that Venus once had a moon, which was formed after the collision. This was followed by another collision which shattered the moon. It is believed that the moon actually collided with Venus, thus having an unusual rotation.
Future plans for Venus
Venus has seen more than 40 spacecraft land on it because of its proximity to us. Because of its proximity, it will always be the target of future studies and even of possible colonies. Scientists have also talked about "floating cities" in Venus. There are still missions going on, until recently in November 2019, NASA received some designs of a dunk-like spacecraft that could better observe and analyze Venus through a team at the University of Buffalo.
do you know?
- The temperature on Venus remains the same regardless of day and night.
- Venus may appear in the sky as a white dot of light, its apparent intensity is -4.14 and standard deviation is 0.31. It can also be seen in the clear afternoon sky, and is more easily seen when the sun is low or setting on the horizon.
- Venus is always located at 47 degrees of the sun.
- The Earth revolves around the Sun 8 times in every 13 orbits of Venus.
- Venus has many times more volcanoes than Earth, and it has 167 large volcanoes that are more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) long.
- The Venus tablet of Amesdoka, believed to have been formed in the middle of the seventeenth century BC, shows that the Babylonians believed that the evening star and the morning star were one and the same thing. The tablet is called "the bright queen of the sky". , And can support this view with detailed observations.
- Although the first Americans to land on the moon, in 1967 they were the first Russians to send unmanned spacecraft to Venice. The spacecraft's name was Venera 4, many other spacecraft had the same name but different numbers were sent after that.
- The spacecraft sent to Venus could not run for more than an hour due to crushing environment and harsh conditions.
- Venus is the second of the four terrestrial planets.
- Venus is the first planet in the solar system whose orbit has been formed in the sky by ancient civilizations.
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- Mercury and Venus revolve around the Sun in Earth's orbit, making them inferior planets.
Astronomy
First record: 14th century BC
Surface temperature: 462 C
Orbit duration: 224.70 Earth days
Distance to orbit: 108,209,475 km (0.73 AU)
Notable Moon: None.
Famous Moon: None.
Equator: 38,025 km
Polar diameter: 12,104 km
Equatorial diameter: 12,104 km
Quantity: 4,867,320,000,000,000 billion kilograms (0.815 x Earth)
