Venus, named for the Roman goddess of beauty, is the second closest planet to the sun and the hottest planet in the solar system, is also known as the “Morning star” & “Evening star”. It’s a naked eye, Terrestrial planet. Its moon-like phase pattern led Galileo Galilee to produce a convincing argument against the geocentric concept of the solar system. Stay tuned to know more about more 10 interesting facts about the planet Venus.
Table of Contents
1.Venus is the second closest planet:
Venus revolves around the sun maintaining a distance of about 10.8 crores K.M. This is a naked-eye planet, i.e. we don’t need a telescope to just see it (Obviously we need a telescope to watch & observe it).
National Geographic
2. Venus revolves in opposite direction (Retrograde motion):
The time Venus takes to revolve around the sun is less than the time taken to move on its own axis. i.e. its annual speed is slower than its diurnal speed. Here one day is equal to 243 Earth days and 1 year is equal to 224.7 earth days.i.e. from Venus you can see the sun twice in a year (in 116.8 earth days difference) and dramatically standing on Venus you see the sun rising from the West & setting in the East. All these strange facts are due to Venus’s Retrograde motion (where most planets move anticlockwise, Venus moves clockwise.). Neptune’s moon Triton shows this motion.
3. Venus is the Earth’s sister planet:
Although due to the closeness to the sun, it’s hotter than Earth, both planets are similar in size, mass, composition & retention of atmospheric. This is the most similar planet in the solar system to the Earth, t5hst is why it’s called sister-planet of Earth. Venus is the closest planet to the earth because most time in the year Venus remains closer to the Earth than any other planet (not even Mars).
4. Green House effect happens in Venus:
The atmosphere of Venus mostly contains Nitrogen and Carbon-di-oxide (~96.6% of CO2, 3.2% of N2, and no water vapor). Possibly all water molecules have been dissociated into H2 and O2 and escaped from the atmosphere of Venus. Now we all know that CO2 has a property that allows visible light to pass through but absorbs the infrared radiations that the surface returns or re-emits. So the sunlight can enter, & after being thermalized, it is radiated in the infrared radiations which are efficiently trapped due to CO2. This whole event is called “The greenhouse effect”. Nowadays, the Greenhouse effect is a global problem for our mother Earth. This affects the environmental balance by increasing the water level by melting the ice parts of the world.
5. Cloud Cover is vital among 10 interesting facts about the planet Venus:
the telescopic images of venus are rather dull and featureless. Venus is totally surrounded by its own cloud system. Deep atmosphere covers Venus so much that its surface can not be seen without a near distance from space-probe. Therefore its rotation period can not be ascertained directly. Before the discovery of its surface with a probe, it was believed that it had a rainy forest hidden by the cloud. Greenhouse effect, high dense atmosphere & high atmospheric pressure cause this cloud. Cloud reflects light quite efficiently. In Venus, more than 70% of incident sunlight is reflected by its topmost thin layer of clouds.
6. Atmospheric pressure is 92 times that of the Earth:
The atmospheric pressure of this planet is so much that the first space probe was destroyed before landing on its surface. This huge atmospheric pressure arises due to its own cloud system that surrounds the planet & atmospheric elements that makes the atmosphere highly dense.
7. Morning Star & Evening Star is the same and it’s nothing but Venus:
Standing on the Earth’s surface, you can observe Venus as the most brilliant object next to the moon in the night sky. In fact, this is the only planet that can be seen in the broad daylight with the naked eye. Its apparent magnitude reaches up to -4.6. Its maximum angular separation from the Sun is 47.8°. Venus can be seen up to 3 hours under favorable circumstances both before the sunrise and after the sunset. It reaches its maximum brightness shortly before the sunrise or shortly after the sunset. For this reason, Venus, in spite of being a planet can be called “The Morning star” & “The Evening star”.
8. Venus is the most tempting planet in the solar system:
You possibly will be astonished that in spite of being the second closest planet to the sun, it is hotter than the closest planet(Mercury) to the Sun. Its average temperature is 460°C. The main reason is its greenhouse effect. This causes about 650K surface temperature of Venus. Now, it’s a serious time for humans to think about the Green House effect, after all this fact of Venus forces us to think about it.
9.Like Mercury Venus also has neither satellite nor ring:
Venus has not any natural satellite. But Why are Mercury and Venus Moonless? There are several reasons. For Mercury, the reason is very straight. If Venus has a moon, the moon should be attracted by the sun’s gravitational force more than that of Venus. So, either it becomes a planet of the sun or can be absorbed by the sun. But, for Venus, this is not so simple. Some astrophysicists consider its Retrograde motion responsible for this condition. They say that in the past Venus revolved anticlockwise and then it had a moon, and after many years due to some reasons, Venus changed its direction, and then due to a tidal force, the moon might be absorbed by Venus or might be vanished in empty space.
10. This is a poisonous planet. Never go to Venus:
Starting from its atmospheric elements to its surface composition all are very very poisonous for humans. The surface has a lot of sulfuric acid and the clouds of Venus are made up of droplets of Sulfuric acid. That much sulfuric acid comes from the sulfur which Venus contains very much. This poisonous sulfuric acid & suffocating CO2 blanket trap the sunlight making the planet very hot almost like an oven. An astronaut visiting Venus must die from the acid burn, roasting, scorching, and suffocation.
In the meanwhile, you should know The top cosmic events in the year 2021
Venus adventure:
In 2006, the “Venus express” by European Space Agency first took picture of Venus’s south pole with a “VIRTIS” spectrometer from about 200,000 K.M. distance. Heat & light were used to take this shot. Venera 13 & Venera 14 were the only two probes that sent back the colorful picture of Venus, which showed that the sky of Venus is orange and the surface is mostly desert with a rocky surface. Most areas are plain because of Lava. Besides, its surface is full of volcanoes. NASA’s “Pioneer Venus” in 1978 and “Magellan” in 1989 were two important missions.
