Venus

Venus
True colour image of Venus, as captured by MESSENGER. A cloud layer permanently obscures the surface.
Designations
Pronunciation/ˈvnəs/
Named after
Roman goddess of love (see goddess Venus)
AdjectivesVenusian /vɪˈnjziən, -ʒən/,[1] rarely Cytherean /sɪθəˈrən/[2] or Venerean / Venerian /vɪˈnɪəriən/[3]
Symbol♀
Orbital characteristics[4][5]
Epoch J2000
Aphelion0.728213 AU (108.94 million km)
Perihelion0.718440 AU (107.48 million km)
0.723332 AU (108.21 million km)
Eccentricity0.006772[6]
583.92 days[4]
35.02 km/s
50.115°
Inclination
76.680°[6]
54.884°
SatellitesNone
Physical characteristics
  • 6,051.8±1.0 km[8]
  • 0.9499 Earths
Flattening0[8]
  • 4.6023×108 km2
  • 0.902 Earths
Volume
  • 9.2843×1011 km3
  • 0.857 Earths
Mass
  • 4.8675×1024 kg[9]
  • 0.815 Earths
Mean density
5.243 g/cm3
8.87 m/s2 (0.904 g0)
10.36 km/s (6.44 mi/s)[10]
−116.75 d (retrograde)[11]
1 Venus solar day
−243.0226 d (retrograde)[12]
Equatorial rotation velocity
1.81 m/s
2.64° (for retrograde rotation)
177.36° (to orbit)[4][note 1]
North pole right ascension
North pole declination
67.16°[14]
Albedo
Temperature232 K (−41 °C) (blackbody temperature)[17]
Surface temp. min mean max
Kelvin 737 K[4]
Celsius 464 °C
Fahrenheit 867 °F
Surface absorbed dose rate2.1×10−6 μGy/h[18]
Surface equivalent dose rate2.2×10−6 μSv/h
0.092–22 μSv/h at cloud level[18]
−4.92 to −2.98[19]
−4.4[20]
9.7″–66.0″[4]
Atmosphere[4]
Surface pressure
93 bar (9.3 MPa)
92 atm
Composition by volume
  1. ^ Defining the rotation as retrograde, as done by NASA space missions and the USGS, puts Ishtar Terra in the northern hemisphere and makes the axial tilt 2.64°. Following the right-hand rule for prograde rotation puts Ishtar Terra in the negative hemisphere and makes the axial tilt 177.36°.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet, having the closest orbit and the most similar mass and size to Earth among the planets of the Solar System. While both are rocky planets, Venus has a significantly thicker and denser atmosphere than Earth and any other rocky planet in the Solar System. It is composed of mostly carbon dioxide (CO2), with a global sulfuric acid cloud cover and no liquid water. At the average surface level the atmosphere reaches a temperature of 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F) and a pressure 92 times greater than Earth's at sea level, turning the lowest layer of the carbon dioxide atmosphere into a supercritical fluid. Venus is the third brightest object in Earth's sky, after the Moon and the Sun,[21][22] and, like Mercury, always appears relatively close to the Sun, either as a "morning star" or an "evening star", resulting from orbiting closer (inferior) to the Sun than Earth.

While the orbit of Venus is the closest to Earth's, the most inferior orbiting Mercury stays for a longer time closer to all the superior orbiting planets, Venus and Earth approaching each other in synodic periods of 1.6 years. Venus though is the planet with the lowest delta-v needed to travel to from Earth, and is therefore often used for gravity assists and as a common waypoint for interplanetary flights from Earth. A Venusian day is 116.75 Earth days long, about half a Venusian solar year, which is 224.7 Earth days long. The rotation of Venus has been slowed and turned against its orbital direction (retrograde) by the currents and drag of its atmosphere.[23]

Internally, Venus has a coremantle, and crust. Venus lacks an internal dynamo, and its weakly induced magnetosphere is caused by atmospheric interactions with the solar wind. Internal heat escapes through active volcanism,[24][25] resulting in resurfacing instead of plate tectonics. Venus has no moons, the only planet in the Solar System together with Mercury that has none.[26] Venus may have had liquid surface water early in its history with a habitable environment,[27][28] before a runaway greenhouse effect evaporated any water and turned Venus into its present state.[29][30][31] Currently conditions at the cloud layer of Venus have been identified as perhaps favourable for life on Venus, wich has spured new research and missions to Venus.

Venus has been a feature found in cultures for thousands of years and was crucial in the development of astronomy. The first telescopic observations of Venus in 1610 crucially proved the heliocentric model. In 1961 Venus was for the first time visited by a spacecraft (Venera 1), as a result of the very first interplanetary flight, but only the next interplantary spacecraft, a year later, returned data (Mariner 2). Furthermore in 1967 the first atmospheric entry (Venera 4) and in 1970 the first soft landing (Venera 7) took place, the first on another planet than Earth. The study of Venus has informed the understanding of the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change on Earth.[32] Currently there are no active, but a range of planed Venus missions.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lexico_Venusian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Cytherean". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ "Venerean, Venerian". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Cite error: The named reference fact was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  14. ^ a b Archinal, B. A.; Acton, C. H.; A'Hearn, M. F.; Conrad, A.; Consolmagno, G. J.; Duxbury, T.; Hestroffer, D.; Hilton, J. L.; Kirk, R. L.; Klioner, S. A.; McCarthy, D.; Meech, K.; Oberst, J.; Ping, J.; Seidelmann, P. K. (2018). "Report of the IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements: 2015". Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. 130 (3): 22. Bibcode:2018CeMDA.130...22A. doi:10.1007/s10569-017-9805-5. ISSN 0923-2958.
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  18. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference radiation-levels was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mallama_and_Hilton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ "Encyclopedia – the brightest bodies". IMCCE. Archived from the original on 24 July 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
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  23. ^ Kane, Stephen (22 April 2022). "Atmospheric dynamics of a near tidally locked Earth-sized planet". Nature Astronomy. 6 (4): 420–427. arXiv:2204.09696. Bibcode:2022NatAs...6..420K. doi:10.1038/s41550-022-01626-x.
  24. ^ Andrews, Roy George (27 May 2024). "Rivers of Lava on Venus Reveal a More Volcanically Active Planet - New software let scientists re-examine old radar images, providing some of the strongest evidence yet that volcanoes continue to reshape the hellish planet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  25. ^ Sulcanese, Davide; Mitri, Giuseppe; Mastrogiuseppe, Marco (27 May 2024). "Evidence of ongoing volcanic activity on Venus revealed by Magellan radar". Nature Astronomy. 8 (8): 973–982. Bibcode:2024NatAs...8..973S. doi:10.1038/s41550-024-02272-1. ISSN 2397-3366. Archived from the original on 28 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
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  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT-20231026 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  31. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shiga_2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference Newitz 2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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