Venus

Venus is known as Earth's twin. They are not identical but they hold drastic differences within the two worlds.

Venus has an atmosphere which is thick and toxic filled with carbon dioxide. It's also filled with yellowish clouds of sulphuric acid that trap heat which cause a greenhouse effect. It's the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the sun.

Venus has an extremely high air pressure at the surface - more than 90 times of the Earth's. This pressure is similar to when you reach a mile below the ocean on Earth.

Venus was the first ever planet to be fully explored by a spacecraft (NASA's Mariner 2) which successfully flew by on December 14, 1962. Since the first fly-by, numerous of spacecrafts have launched from the United States to visit this strange planet.

Size and Distance
Venus is roughly the same size as Earth, measuring in at 3,760 miles (6,052 kilometres); slightly smaller than our planet.

Venus is 0.7 astronomical units away. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as 'AU'), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. If the Sun's light beams were to travel to Venus, it would take six minutes for the light to fully reach the planet.

Orbit and Rotation
Venus' orbit and rotation is very strange compared to other planets. Instead of rotating from north to south, Venus rotates from east to west. Uranus also does this. For Venus to complete one rotation around the sun, it would take 243 Earth days, the longest out of all the planets in our solar system. The Sun doesn't regularly rise and set each "day" on Venus, instead, it takes 117 Earth days for the Sun to appear on Venus. This is mainly due to its rotational orbit.

the time it takes for Venus to make a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Venusian time) is 225 Earth days or a bit less than two Venusian day-night cycles. In fact, Venus' orbit around the sun is one of the most circular out of any other planet.

Since Venus spins nearly upright, it does not experience seasons throughout Venusian days.

Structure
Venus is similar to Earth's structure in many ways. It has a core that is approximately 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) in radius. Venus also creates volcanoes because the surface has a thin crust of rock that bulges and moves as Venus' mantle shifts.

Formation
When the solar system formed into the layout we know today, which happened around 4.5 billion years ago, Venus formed by gravity gas and dust together to form the second closest planet to the Sun. Like other terrestrial planets, Venus has a central core which has a rocky mantle and solid crust.

Kid-Friendly Facts
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, even though it's not the closest to the Sun. Its atmosphere is thick which has a greenhouse gas with carbon dioxide clouds that are made of sulphuric acid. Venus keeps very warm because the atmosphere traps heat.

Venus is a very active planet, from volcanoes to mountains. Venus has a similar size to Earth, but our planet is just a bit bigger. Unlike other planets, Venus doesn't spin the way the Earth does, it spins sideways instead of upwards. Its days are very slow.

Surface
If you were to go into space, Venus would be very bright because it has clouds which reflect sunlight. Venus' rocks are different shades of grey, but everything looks orange because the atmosphere filters the sunlight.

Venus has tens of thousands volcanoes on its surface, mountains and valleys. Maxwell Montes, the highest mountain on Venus, is roughly 20,000 feet (8.8 Kilometres) Similar to Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. Surface temperatures reach a scorching 417 degrees Celsius.

It is though that about 300 to 500 million years ago, Venus was completely resurfaced. Venus has two main areas: Ishtar Terra, the size of Australia, in the north region; and Aphrodite Terra, the size of South America in the south region. Aphrodite Terra extends from its equator for about 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometres)

Venus is covered with craters, measuring no smaller than 0.9 to 1.2 miles (1.5 to 2 kilometres). If meteoroids were to enter Venus, it would burn up due to the dense atmosphere. This is only the case for small meteoroids, if large meteoroids entered Venus, however, the atmosphere would not affect it at all.

Venus' surface features are named after notable women, both mythical and real. Sacajawea, a volcanic crater, is named after a Native American who guided a the Lewis and Clark's exploration. Diana, a deep canyon, is named after the Roman goddess of the hunt.

Atmosphere
Venus' atmosphere is mostly contained of carbon dioxide, with its clouds filled with sulphuric acid. This atmosphere traps the Sun's heat, resulting in temperatures higher than 470 degrees Celsius. Venus' atmosphere has many layers which have different temperatures. About 30 miles above Venus' surface, where the clouds are, the temperature would be the same as the Earth.

As Venus continues in its solar orbit, whilst rotating on its backwards axis, the top level of the clouds only appear every four Earth days. This happens because of the wind speeds which reach to about 224 miles per hour (360 kilometres per hour). Atmospheric bursts of light also appear within the moving clouds. Depending on the height of the clouds, the speed changes. The surface clouds are estimated to be around a few miles per hour.

On the ground, Venus' clouds would be very hasty, similar to an overcast day on Earth. Venus' atmosphere is so strong that it feels the same if you were to travel a mile underwater (1.6 kilometres).

Magnetosphere
Even though Venus is similar in size to Earth and has a similar core, the planet's magnetic field is much weaker than Earth's due to Venus' slow rotation.

Rings
Venus has no visible rings.

Moons
Venus has no visible moons.

Human Life
No one has ever visited Venus, but the spacecraft that has been sent did not last long on its surface. If we were to compare this event to humans walking on Venus, the similarities would be very noticeable.

Astrophysicists believe there was life on Venus during its early life-cycle. Where the top layers of the clouds have less extreme temperatures, there was speculation that life could've lived on there as well.