Facts about Venus
Radar observations in the 1970s revealed details of Venus' surface for the first time.
that the morning and evening stars were a single body, though he espoused the view that Venus orbited the Earth.
The Venus symbol also represents femininity, and in ancient alchemy stood for the metal copper.
Venus rotates once every 243 days—by far the slowest rotation period of any of the major planets.
The reversed spin direction caused the Venusian moon to gradually spiral inward until it collided and merged with Venus.
The Venera program came to a close in October 1983 when Venera 15 and Venera 16 were placed in orbit to conduct mapping of the Venusian terrain with synthetic aperture radar.
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.
Venus is currently moonless, though the asteroid 2002 VE68 currently maintains a quasi-satellite orbital relationship with it.
Almost all Venusian surface features are named after historical and mythological women.
Venus is always brighter than the brightest stars, with its apparent magnitude ranging from -3.8 to -4.6.
The slightly smaller size of Venus suggests that pressures are significantly lower in its deep interior than Earth.
The Venus Express probe successfully assumed orbit around Venus on April 11, 2006.
The question of how Venus came to have a slow, retrograde rotation was a major puzzle for scientists when the planet's rotation period was first measured.
A curious aspect of Venus' orbit and rotation periods is that the 584-day average interval between successive close approaches to the Earth is almost exactly equal to five Venusian solar days.
The subsequent Mariner 2 mission enjoyed greater success, and after a 109-day transfer orbit on December 14, 1962 it became the world's first successful interplanetary mission, passing 34,833 kilometers above the surface of Venus.
Venus is one of the four terrestrial planets, meaning that, like the Earth, it is a rocky body.
Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days.
The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and most of its surface features are named after famous and mythological women.
Venus is brightest when it is a thin crescent; it is much closer to Earth when a thin crescent than when gibbous, or full.
The Pioneer Venus Orbiter was inserted into an elliptical orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978, and remained there for over 13 years studying the atmosphere and mapping the surface with radar.
The diameter of Venus is only 650 kilometers less than the Earth's, and its mass is 81.5 percent of the Earth's.
Overall, Venus has several times as many volcanoes as Earth, and it possesses some 167 giant volcanoes that are over 100 kilometers across.
Venus' orbit is slightly inclined relative to the Earth's orbit; thus, when the planet passes between the Earth and the Sun, it usually does not cross the face of the Sun.
Venus has the densest atmosphere of the terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, and the atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 90 times that of the Earth.
Vesto Slipher tried to measure the Doppler shift of light from Venus, but found that he could not detect any rotation.
Venus was observed by the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft during flybys on their respective missions to the outer planets, but Magellan would otherwise be the last dedicated mission to Venus for over a decade.
James Cook's exploration of the east coast of Australia came after he had sailed to Tahiti in 1768 to observe a transit of Venus.
Venus is known in the Hindu Jyotisha since early times as the planet Shukra.
Historically, transits of Venus were important, because they allowed astronomers to directly determine the size of the astronomical unit, and hence of the solar system.
The first unmanned space mission to Venus—and the first to any planet—began on February 12, 1961 with the launch of the Venera 1 probe.
Earth's crust is continually recycled by subduction at the boundaries of tectonic plates, and has an average age of about 100 million years, while Venus' surface is estimated to be about 500 million years old.
Mariner 5 was originally built as backup for the Mars-bound Mariner 4, but when that mission was successful, the probe was refitted for a Venus mission.
Robert Heinlein's Future History series was set on a Venus inspired by the chemist Svante Arrhenius's prediction of a steamy carboniferous swamp upon which the rain dripped incessantly.
Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, and is often referred to as the Morning Star or as the Evening Star.
The Venera program continued with Venera 8 sending data from the surface for 50 minutes, and Venera 9 and Venera 10 sending the first images of the Venusian landscape.
Observers have speculated that it may result from electrical activity in the Venusian atmosphere, but it may be illusory, resulting from the physiological effect of observing a very bright crescent-shaped object.
The astronomical symbol for Venus is the same as that used in biology for the female sex, a stylized representation of the goddess Venus' hand mirror: a circle with a small cross underneath.
The probe is undertaking a detailed study of the Venusian atmosphere and clouds, and will also map the planet's plasma environment and surface characteristics, particularly temperatures.
The Venusian atmosphere was considerably denser than Venera 4's designers had anticipated, and its slower than intended parachute descent meant that its batteries ran down before the probe reached the surface.
The permanent cloud cover means that although Venus is closer than Earth to the Sun, the Venusian surface is not as well heated or lit.
The principal difference between the two planets is the lack of plate tectonics on Venus, likely due to the dry surface and mantle.
Venus has an extremely thick atmosphere, which consists mainly of carbon dioxide and a small amount of nitrogen.
A suite of instruments more sensitive than those on Mariner 2, in particular its radio occultation experiment, returned data on the composition, pressure and density of Venus' atmosphere.
The Soviet Union had not finished with Venus, and in 1985 it took advantage of the opportunity to combine missions to Venus and Comet Halley, which passed through the inner solar system that year.
The United States' exploration of Venus also started badly with the loss of the Mariner 1 probe on launch.
When Venus lies between the Earth and the Sun, a position known as inferior conjunction, it makes the closest approach to Earth of any planet, lying at a distance of about 40 million kilometers.
Mariner 2 also obtained improved estimates of Venus' mass and of the astronomical unit, but was unable to detect either a magnetic field or radiation belts.
The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe released a total of five probes which entered the atmosphere on December 9, 1978, returning data on its composition, winds and heat fluxes.
Venus was important to the Mayan civilization, who developed a religious calendar based in part upon its motions, and held the motions of Venus to determine the propitious time for events such as war.
In 1994, at the end of its mission, Magellan was deliberately sent to its destruction into the atmosphere of Venus in an effort to quantify its density.
Venus' next encounter with an unmanned probe came on October 18, 1967 when Venera 4 successfully entered the atmosphere and deployed a number of science experiments.
Much of Venus' surface appears to have been shaped by volcanic activity.
In 1980, The Pioneer Venus Orbiter found that Venus' magnetic field is both weaker and smaller (i.e., closer to the planet) than Earth's.
After returning atmospheric data for a little over 50 minutes, they both were crushed at altitudes of approximately 20 kilometers before going on to strike the surface on the night side of Venus.
Venus is thus an example of an extreme case of climate change, making it a useful tool in climate change studies.
Earth's crust is in continuous motion, but it is thought that Venus cannot sustain such a process.
Spectroscopic observations in the 1900s gave the first clues about Venus' rotation.
One of the first results emerging from Venus Express is the discovery that a huge double atmospheric vortex exists at the south pole of the planet.
A Venusian day, thus, lasts more than a Venusian year (243 versus 224.7 Earth days).
The United States' Magellan probe was launched on May 4, 1989, with a mission to map the surface of Venus with radar.
The permanent cloud cover means that although Venus is closer than Earth to the Sun, the Venusian surface is not as well heated or lit.
The Romans would later name the planet in honor of their goddess of love, Venus, whereas the Greeks used the name of its Greek counterpart, Aphrodite.
Venus' magnetosphere is too weak to protect the atmosphere from cosmic radiation.
On February 5, 1974, Mariner 10 passed within 5,790 km of Venus, returning over four thousand photographs as it did so.
Magellan imaged over 98 percent of Venus' surface by radar and mapped 95 percent of its gravity field.
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.
A long-standing mystery of Venus observations is the so-called 'ashen light'—an apparent weak illumination of the dark side of the planet, seen when the planet is in the crescent phase.
The ancient Egyptians believed Venus to be two separate bodies and knew the morning star as Tioumoutiri and the evening star as Ouaiti.
In 1969, future U.S. President Jimmy Carter reported having seen a UFO, which later analysis suggested was probably the planet, and countless other people have mistaken Venus for something more exotic.
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.
Another probe arrived at Venus one day later on October 19, 1967 when Mariner 5 conducted a flyby at a distance of less than 4,000 kilometers above the cloud tops.
Food for Large Leaves. Feed larger Venus flytrap leaves adult crickets, ants, small beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, millipedes, sowbugs and suitably sized slugs. In their native habitat, Venus flytraps don't often capture flies, but instead many kinds of crawling insects, such as beetles and ants.
Ideally, you want to keep your seeds between 78 and 90 F (25 – 32 C). They will germinate faster if they are warmer than room temperature. Keep an eye on the surface of the soil and do not let it dry out. Spray the surface with distilled water, or you can cover the top with some clear plastic to increase the humidity.Sep 8, 2014
Fortunately for people, Venus flytrap plants can't eat anything much bigger than a housefly and mostly they eat mosquitoes and gnats. If you put the tip of your finger in the flytrap's bug eating mouth, it will quickly snap shut, but it won't hurt at all.
Most carnivorous plants selectively feed on specific prey. This selection is due to the available prey and the type of trap used by the organism. With the Venus flytrap, prey is limited to beetles, spiders and other crawling arthropods. ... Dionaea are able to extract more nutrients from these larger bugs.
During their active growing season, Venus Fly Traps should receive a minimum of 12 hours of light (also known as a 12 hour photoperiod) with a minimum of 4 hours of direct sunlight, if you're growing your Venus Flytraps outside. In general, the more direct light the plant receives the healthier the plant will be.
Even without a brain to analyze what it's eating, the Venus Flytrap still manages to differentiate between insects and non-edible debris that might fall into its trap. ... It's guaranteed that at least one (if not all) of the trigger hairs will be tweaked by the insect's movement.
The leaves of Venus' Flytrap open wide and on them are short, stiff hairs called trigger or sensitive hairs. When anything touches these hairs enough to bend them, the two lobes of the leaves snap shut trapping whatever is inside. ... The trap doesn't close all of the way at first.
How the Venus Flytrap Kills and Digests Its Prey. ... Venus flytraps are the speed demons of the plant world. In spite of belonging to a particularly sedate kingdom of organisms, these carnivorous plants snap shut their two-lobed traps in a tenth of a second to capture an insect meal, which they then digest.Sep 5, 2011
But still — they're plants, but they eat flesh. ... The plant lived, although it was from then on given a diet of wholesome insects. So it seems — under very specialized circumstances — a venus flytrap might eat a person, if they were cut up and fed to it a gram or two of skin at a time.Oct 12, 2011
They are called carnivorous plants because they catch small prey and digest them with special juices. Venus flytraps are not poisonous, so anything could prey upon the plants. ... In nature, small mammals such as rodents and larger insects eat the plant.Mar 6, 2011
It takes 243 Earth days to rotate once on its axis (sidereal day). The planet's orbit around the Sun takes 225 Earth days, compared to the Earth's 365. A day on the surface of Venus (solar day) takes 117 Earth days. Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets.
Venus Facts. ... Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet and is sometimes referred to as the Earth's sister planet due the their similar size and mass. The surface of the planet is obscured by an opaque layer of clouds made up of sulphuric acid.
The Romans knew of seven bright objects in the sky: the Sun, the Moon, and the five brightest planets. They named them after their most important gods. Venus, the brightest planet in the night sky, was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.
Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon, and sometimes looks like a bright star in the morning or evening sky. The planet is a little smaller than Earth, and is similar to Earth inside. We can't see the surface of Venus from Earth, because it is covered with thick clouds.Apr 9, 2009
Venus would not be a pleasant place for people to live in the solar system. The planet's active volcanoes and runaway greenhouse effect would make it a difficult place to survive. Between its desiccated, red-orange landscape and surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, Venus is our solar system's analog to hell.Feb 3, 2015
There are the inner, rocky terrestrial planets and then the outer gas giants. Venus is a terrestrial planet. The terrestrial planets are the 4 inner rocky worlds in the Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. ... But compare a terrestrial world like Venus to the gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter.Jun 16, 2010
Note that the amount of nitrogen in Venus's atmosphere is a little larger than in Earth's atmosphere, but the amount of oxygen is much less and the amount of carbon dioxide is much more. ... Venus doesn't have any living things and it is too hot for water vapor to condense.
Venus is made up of a central iron core and a rocky mantle, similar to the composition of Earth. Its atmosphere is mainly made up of carbon dioxide (96%) and nitrogen (3%), with small amounts of other gases.
The climate on Venus is widely known to be unpleasant -- at the surface, the planet roasts at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit under a suffocating blanket of sulfuric acid clouds and a crushing atmosphere more than 90 times the pressure of Earth's.Sep 27, 2011
Some of the planets in our solar system are much bigger than Earth while others are smaller. By using simple fractions, you will explore how their sizes compare to each other. Problem 1 - Saturn is 10 times bigger than Venus, and Venus is 1/4 the size of Neptune. ... Problem 3 - Earth is the same size as Venus.
The planet is a little smaller than Earth, and is similar to Earth inside. We can't see the surface of Venus from Earth, because it is covered with thick clouds. However, space missions to Venus have shown us that its surface is covered with craters, volcanoes, mountains, and big lava plains.Apr 9, 2009
Venus is made up of a central iron core and a rocky mantle, similar to the composition of Earth. Its atmosphere is mainly made up of carbon dioxide (96%) and nitrogen (3%), with small amounts of other gases.