VENUS

Venus, the jewel of the sky, was once know by ancient astronomers as the
morning star and evening star. Early astronomers once thought Venus to
be two separate bodies. Venus, which is named after the Roman goddess of
love and beauty, is veiled by thick swirling cloud cover.

Astronomers refer to Venus as Earth's sister planet. Both are similar in size,
mass, density and volume. Both formed about the same time and condensed
out of the same nebula. However, during the last few years scientists have
found that the kinship ends here. Venus is very different from the Earth. It
has no oceans and is surrounded by a heavy atmosphere composed mainly of
carbon dioxide with virtually no water vapor. Its clouds are composed of
sulfuric acid droplets. At the surface, the atmospheric pressure is 92 times
that of the Earth's at sea-level.

Venus is scorched with a surface temperature of about 482° C (900° F). This
high temperature is primarily due to a runaway greenhouse effect caused by
the heavy atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Sunlight passes through the
atmosphere to heat the surface of the planet. Heat is radiated out, but is
trapped by the dense atmosphere and not allowed to escape into space. This
makes Venus hotter than Mercury.

A Venusian day is 243 Earth days and is longer than its year of 225 days.
Oddly, Venus rotates from east to west. To an observer on Venus, the Sun
would rise in the west and set in the east.

Until just recently, Venus' dense cloud cover has prevented scientists from
uncovering the geological nature of the surface. Developments in radar
telescopes and radar imaging systems orbiting the planet have made it
possible to see through the cloud deck to the surface below. Four of the most
successful missions in revealing the Venusian surface are NASA's Pioneer
Venus mission (1978), the Soviet Union's Venera 15 and 16 missions (1983-
1984), and NASA's Magellan radar mapping mission (1990-1994). As these
spacecraft began mapping the planet a new picture of Venus emerged.
Venus' surface is relatively young geologically speaking. It appears to have
been completely resurfaced 300 to 500 million years ago. Scientists debate
how and why this occurred. The Venusian topography consists of vast plains
covered by lava flows and mountain or highland regions deformed by
geological activity. Maxwell Montes in Ishtar Terra is the highest peak on
Venus. The Aphrodite Terra highlands extend almost half way around the
equator. Magellan images of highland regions above 2.5 kilometers (1.5
miles) are unusually bright, characteristic of moist soil. However, liquid
water does not exist on the surface and cannot account for the bright
highlands. One theory suggests that the bright material might be composed
of metallic compounds. Studies have shown the material might be iron pyrite
(also know as "fools gold"). It is unstable on the plains but would be stable
in the highlands. The material could also be some type of exotic material
which would give the same results but at lower concentrations.

Venus is scarred by numerous impact craters distrubuted randomly over its

surface. Small craters less that 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) are almost non-
existent due to the heavy Venusian atmosphere. The exception occurs when
large meteorites shatter just before impact, creating crater clusters.
Volcanoes and volcanic features are even more numerous. At least 85% of
the Venusian surface is covered with volcanic rock. Hugh lava flows,
extending for hundreds of kilometers, have flooded the lowlands creating
vast plains. More than 100,000 small shield volcanoes dot the surface along
with hundreds of large volcanos. Flows from volcanos have produced long
sinuous channels extending for hundreds of kilometers, with one extending
nearly 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles).

Giant calderas more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) in diameter are found on
Venus. Terrestrial calderas are usually only several kilometers in diameter.
Several features unique to Venus include coronae and arachnoids. Coronae
are large circular to oval features, encircled with cliffs and are hundreds of
kilometers across. They are thought to be the surface expression of mantle
upwelling. Archnoids are circular to elongated features similar to coronae.
They may have been caused by molten rock seeping into surface fractures
and producing systems of radiating dikes and fractures.
Venus Statistics
Mass (kg) 4.869e+24
Mass (Earth = 1) .81476
Equatorial radius (km) 6,051.8
Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) .94886
Mean density (gm/cm^3) 5.25
Mean distance from the Sun (km) 108,200,000
Mean distance from the Sun (Earth = 1) 0.7233
Rotational period (days) -243.0187
Orbital period (days) 224.701
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) 35.02
Orbital eccentricity 0.0068
Tilt of axis (degrees) 177.36
Orbital inclination (degrees) 3.394
Equatorial surface gravity (m/sec^2) 8.87
Equatorial escape velocity (km/sec) 10.36
Visual geometric albedo 0.65
Magnitude (Vo) -4.4
Mean surface temperature 482°C
Atmospheric pressure (bars) 92
Atmospheric composition
Carbon dioxide
Nitrogen

Trace amounts of: Sulfur dioxide, water

vapor,
carbon monoxide, argon, helium, neon,
hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen
fluoride.

This information was collected from :

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/venus.htm