If you're already following, read below for some fun facts about the planet Venus!
Of all the planets, Venus is the closest in size to Earth, and because of that the two are sometimes referred to as twins!
Even though they are similar in size, that’s where the similarities end! Venus has the longest day of any planet in the solar system, clocking in at 243 days! Imagine if your workday was that long! Yikes.
Venus’ days are so long they’re actually longer than its year, which is only 225 days.
Sunrises and sunsets are special on Venus, because Venus actually rotates backwards! That means the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east. Sunrise to sunset takes about 117 days
Venus is one of only two planets to have no moons, the other one being Mercury. It does however have a quasi-satellite named Zooze that was discovered in 2002!
Venus is extreme to the nth degree; Venus is actually the second hottest object in our solar system second only to the Sun itself! That’s right, even hotter than Mercury!
This is because Venus’ atmosphere is made up of mostly carbon dioxin with clouds made up of sulfuric acid.
The Magellan was the last US based mission to Venus, which launched in 1989 and ended in 1994. This spacecraft was the first to image the entire surface of Venus through use of radar and was the first deep space probe to be launched by a space shuttle! NASA is launching another probe called DAVINCI - Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging - in the early 2030s.
That’s not to say that there have been no other expeditions to Venus. In 2005, the Venus Express orbiter was launched by the European Space Agency, which to date has collected the best evidence of active volcanoes on Venus. I can’t imagine how hot those could even get!
Japan also launched their Akatsuki craft in 2010, which studied the atmosphere and made some pretty hefty discoveries! Venus has both a powerful equatorial jet stream and a super-rotating atmosphere. This means that the winds circle the planet faster than the planet can rotate.
That is to say, clouds are a really big deal on Venus.
Thanks so much for joining us on this journey! Be sure to stay tuned for even more planetary facts.
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