Venus is the second planet from the sun. It is one of the four inner planets. These planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The inner planets are also called the rocky planets, because they are made of rocks.
Venus is sometimes called the "Evening Star" and the "Morning Star". It is very bright. You can see it at sunset and sunrise. It is so bright it looks like a star, but it does not twinkle.
Venus spins very slowly. One "day" on Venus is longer than one year on Venus!!!It takes Venus 243 days to spin around its axis one time. This means that one Venus day is 243 "Earth Days" long. Venus orbits, or goes around the sun, in only 225 days! This means one Venus year is 225 days long!!!
Venus is different from all the other planets because it spins "backwards" on its axis.
Venus is different from all the other planets because it spins "backwards" on its axis. Click here to see a real movie of Venus spinning backwards!
 
Astronomers call Venus Earth's "sister planet" because it is about the same size as Earth. Its gravity is also about the same as Earth's gravity. This means you would weigh about the same amount on Venus and on Earth. Venus, however, is very different from Earth.
 Earth has big oceans and a lot of water vapor in the air. Earth has clouds made of water vapor. Earth has an atmosphere made of gases called oxygen and nitrogen. Our atmosphere also has a little bit of carbon dioxide and other gases in it. Click here to see what an atmosphere is
 Venus has no oceans. Its atmosphere is made mostly of carbon dioxide. There is almost no water vapor in its air.Venus is totally covered by clouds made of acid. (sulpheric acid)
The clouds cover the whole surface of Venus. They let sunlight in, but do not let heat out. Click here to see a picture of how this works! This makes Venus very, very hot. It is even hotter than Mercury which is closer to the sun! The temperature on the surface of Venus is about 900 degrees Fahreheit! That is nine times as hot as a 100 degree day on Earth!
 Like Mercury, the surface of Venus is covered with craters made by meteorites. There are also many volcanoes on Venus. The volcanoes are not active anymore, which means they do not erupt. This picture shows Maat Mons, one of Venus's volcanoes.
|
|
