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Venus
Venus
Venus (diameter 12,100km) is the second planet from the Sun. It
is 108 million km from the
Sun, orbiting once every
225 days and spinning clockwise on its axis once every 243 days.
It is known as the
evening and morning
“star” in our skies and
is about the same size
as the Earth. However,
it is one of the most
hostile environments in
the Solar System. The
shining white “surface”
of the planet is actually an atmosphere containing carbon dioxide and sulfur-dioxide-rich clouds. From the clouds a rain of sulfuric acid droplets continually falls on the rocky surface.
The atmosphere absorbs heat from the Sun, so that the air temperature is about 480°C (a kind of extreme form of the Earth’s “greenhouse effect”), and it is actually hotter than Mercury, a planet much closer to the Sun.
The atmosphere also protects the surface from all but a few meteoroids, so the surface does not have as many craters as, for example, Mars.
It is believed Venus contains a molten core similar to that of Earth. The rocks on Venus are
also similar to those found on the Earth’s continents (granite) and below the Earth’s oceans (basalt). Venus does not have a magnetic field, but it probably once
had oceans of water— before the “greenhouse effect” caused them
to boil away. (See also: Magellan; Mariner.)
 Venus—Magellan, the probe that photographed Venus.
Rocky crust
Mantle
Core
 Venus— The evening and morning star reflects light well and so appears white. It is, in fact, a yellow-brown planet with a crust, a mantle, and a core not unlike those on the Earth. The core is probably solid because Venus does not show any signs of having a magnetic field.
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