Venus: The Morning and Evening Star

Overview

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is Earth's closest planetary neighbour. Venus is known as the "Morning and Evening Star" because it is one of the brightest objects in the sky when viewed from Earth. It is always found near the sun and it rises and sets each day.
Venus' surface is often described as a "hellscape" due to thousands of volcanos and crushing air pressure on its surface.

Description

Venus is formed around 4.6 billion years ago. With a radius of 3,760 miles (6,052 kilometers), and it is almost as big as Earth. From Earth, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after our own Moon. Venus also has phases, just like our Moon - only that it takes 584 days to complete a cycle.

Potential for Life:
30 miles up (about 50 kilometers) from ground level, temperatures ranging from 30 to 70 Celsius (86 to 158 Fahrenheit), might accommodate Earthly life, such as "extremophile"* microbes. The pressure at that height is similar to that of the pressure on Earth's surface.

Orbit and Rotation:
A day on Venus would be 243 Earth days long - longer than a Venus year, which takes only 225 Earth days. Because of the planet's slow rotation, sunrise to sunset would take 117 Earth days. There isn't any seasons on Venus due to its spin axis is tilted by only 3 degrees.

Structure:
The structure of Venus is quite similar to that of Earth's. It has an iron core enveloped by a hot-rock mantle with a thin, rocky crust. The crust changes form and sometimes erupts into volcanoes in response to the ebb and flow of heat and pressure deep beneath the surface.

Surface:
Venus appears to have erased most traces of its early surface due to volcanic and tectonic forces, with the average age of surface dating back to 150 million years ago mixed with some older surfaces. Venus is a landscape of valleys and high mountains dotted with thousands of volcanoes.

Temperatures:
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system - even though Mercury is closer to the sun. Surface temperatures on Venus is about 475 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit) - hot enough to melt lead.

Atmosphere:
Venus' atmosphere is one of the extremes. The atmospheric pressure on Venus' surface is about 95 times that of Earth's. This is the same pressure found at a depth of 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) below Earth's oceans. The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide - the same gas creating the greenhouse effect** on Venus and Earth, with clouds composed of sulfuric acid.

Magetosphere:
Venus does not have its own internally generated magnetic field. Instead, Venus has what is known as an induced magnetic field. This magnetic field is created by the interaction of the Sun's magnetic field and the planet's outer atmosphere.

Fun Facts!

• Unlike other planets in our solar system, Venus spins clockwise on its axis.
• Venus' mass is 4.8673e+24 tonnes or the same as 0.815 Earths.
• Venus is sometimes called Earth's twin because it's similar in size and structure.
• Venus is named after the Roman godess of love and beauty, Venus.

Footnotes:

*A microorganism that lives in conditions of extreme temperature, acidity, alkalinity, or chemical concentration.

**The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when gases in the atmosphere trap the sun's heat. Click here for Wikipedia page about the greenhouse effect.