| HOME |
Below are ten facts about
Venus and a table of statistics
|
|
FACT
ONE
Venus and Mercury
are the only two planets in the Solar System not to have moons orbiting them.
FACT
TWO
If you were able to stand on the surface of Venus, it would feel
like being 1 kilometre under the sea on Earth, a depth deep enough to sink a
submarine. A person or a creature would immediately be crushed by
Venus' amazingly strong pressure.
|
FACT
THREE
Venus may have such a thick atmosphere because it spins so
slowly. In fact, a year on Venus is shorter than its day. It
takes the planet longer to turn on its axis than it takes it to
orbit the Sun.
The slow rotation means that atmosphere does not have a force to
spin off into space.
FACT
FOUR
Venus is the only planet in the Solar System to turn clockwise. All other
planets turn anti-clockwise. It rotates clockwise on its axis
extremely slowly, suggesting that something might have once
collided with it to disrupt its regular rotation.
FACT
FIVE
People once believed Venus to be two different stars known as the
Morning Star and the Evening Star, because it can be seen in the
morning and the evening.
FACT
SIX
After the Sun
and the Moon,
Venus is the brightest object in the night-sky from Earth
FACT
SEVEN
The Americans have only ever landed one probe on Venus. This was Pioneer
Venus 2, launched
on 8th August 1978 which was to probe the planet's atmosphere,
not examine its surface. All other landings on Venus were made by
the Russians. There are no plans for missions to return to Venus
in the near future.
FACT
EIGHT
Venus' axis hardly has any tilt at all, unlike Mars and Earth. This means that, if it had a thin
atmosphere, the planet would not have seasons.
FACT NINE
There are more volcanoes on Venus than on any other planet
in the Solar System, although it is not yet known whether any of these volcanoes are still active.
FACT TEN
Venus may now resemble what Earth will become in millions of years
time, when the Sun
expands, heats the Earth, turning all of its surface water
into a vapour which will trap sunlight and heat in its
atmosphere, causing suffocating conditions like those on Venus.
VIEW FACTS ABOUT OTHER
DESTINATIONS
The Sun -
Mercury -
Venus
- Earth -
The Moon -
Mars
- Jupiter -
Saturn -
Uranus
- Neptune -
Pluto and Dwarf
Planets
PLANETARY STATISTICS
| NAME |
Venus |
| MEANING OF
NAME |
Roman goddess of love and beauty (Greek
equivalent is Aphrodite) |
| NAME
IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES |
Vénus (French), Venus (Spanish, German,
Latin), Vênus (Portuguese), Venere (Italian), Venera (Russian), |
| AVERAGE
DISTANCE FROM THE SUN |
108,208,930 km /
67,237, 910 miles / 0.723 A.U.
Comparison with
Earth: 149,597,890 km / 92,955,820 miles / 1.000 A.U. |
| CLOSEST
DISTANCE TO THE SUN (PERIHELION) |
107,476,000 km /
66,782,000 miles / 0.718 A.U.
Comparison with
Earth: 147,100,000 km / 91,400,000 miles / 0.983 A.U. |
| FARTHEST
DISTANCE FROM THE SUN (APHELION) |
108,942,000 km /
67,693,000 miles / 0.728 A.U.
Comparison with
Earth: 152,100,000 km / 94,500,000 miles / 1.017 A.U. |
| DIAMETER
ACROSS EQUATOR |
12,104
km / 7,521 miles
Comparison with
Earth: 12,756 km / 7,926 miles
|
| DIAGRAM
SHOWING PLANET'S SIZE COMPARED TO THE SIZE OF EARTH |
 |
| CIRCUMFERENCE
AROUND EQUATOR |
38,025 km / 23,627
miles
Comparison with
Earth: 40,074 km / 24,901 miles |
| MASS |
4,868,500,000,000,000,000,000,000
kg
Comparison with
Earth 5,973,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg |
| TIME TO SPIN
ON AXIS |
243 days (in
retrograde)
Comparison with
Earth: 23 hours, 56 minutes |
| TIME TO ORBIT
THE SUN (1 YEAR) |
224 days, 17 hours
Comparison with
Earth: 365 days, 6 hours |
| DISTANCE
PLANET TRAVELS TO COMPLETE ONE ORBIT |
675,300,000 km /
419,600,000 miles
Comparison with
Earth: 924,375,700 km / 574,380,400 miles |
| GRAVITY (EARTH
= 1) |
0.91 |
| ESCAPE
VELOCITY |
37,300 km/h /
23,200 mph
Comparison with
Earth: 40,248 km/h / 25,009 mph |
| MINIMUM
SURFACE TEMPERATURE |
462 °C / 864 °F
/ 735 K
Comparison with
Earth: -88 °c / -126 °F / 185 K |
| MAXIMUM
SURFACE TEMPERATURE |
462 °C / 864 °F
/ 735 K
Comparison with
Earth: 58 °c / 136 ° F / 331 K |
| WEATHER
CONDITIONS |
Venus is very hot - the hottest planet in the
Solar System - with the temperature staying the same, regardless of the
time of year or whether it is day or night. Everyday is dull and hazy.
Despite the clouds being full of acid rain, this rain evaporates before
reaching the surface. Thunder and lightning is very common on Venus. |
| CONTENTS OF
ATMOSPHERE |
96.5% carbon
dioxide (CO2) and 3.5% nitrogen (N2). Other gases
are present in very small quantities: 0.015% sulfur dioxide (SO2),
0.007% argon (Ar), 0.002% water (H2O), 0.0017% carbon
monoxide (CO), 0.0012% helium (He) and 0.0007% neon (Ne)
|
| KNOWN MOONS |
There are no moons
known to orbit Venus |
| PAST MISSIONS
(including nationality and year of launch - failed missions are in red) |
Sputnik
7 (USSR, 1961), Verena 1 (USSR, 1961),
Mariner 1 (USA, 1962), Mariner 2
(USA, 1962), Zond 1 (USSR, 1964), Venera 2
(USSR, 1965), Venera 3 (USSR, 1965), Venera
4 (USSR, 1967), Mariner 5 (USA, 1967), Venera 5 (USSR, 1969), Venera 6
(USSR, 1969), Venera 7 (USSR, 1970), Venera 8 (USSR, 1972), Mariner 10
(USA, 1973), Venera 9 (USSR, 1975), Venera 10 (USSR, 1975), Pioneer 12/Pioneer Venus 1
(USA, 1978), Pioneer 13/Pioneer Venus 2 (USA, 1978), Venera 11 (USSR,
1978), Venera 12 (USSR, 1978), Venera 13 (USSR, 1981), Venera 14 (USSR,
1981), Venera 15 (USSR, 1983), Venera 16 (USSR, 1983), Vega 1 (USSR,
1984), Vega 2 (USSR, 1984), Magellan (USA, 1989) |
| PRESENT
MISSIONS |
Venus Express
(Europe, 2005) |
| PLANNED
MISSIONS |
Planet-C
(Japan, 2010) |
| NOTABLE
FEATURES |
Most
volcanic surface of any planet in the Solar Systems, although it is not
known whether any of the volcanoes are still active |
|
