Venus

Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
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Orbit and Rotation

Averages 67.3 million miles from the Sun. With the most nearly circular orbit, this distance varies only half a million miles on either side.
Revolves around the Sun in 225 days, rotates, BACKWARDS, in 243 days.

Has a dense carbon-dioxide atmosphere, with trace amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride.
Covered with a thick layer of clouds which are made up mostly of sulfuric acid droplets.
The atmosphere of Venus traps solar heat and has created a "runaway greenhouse effect."
Surface temperatures average 400 degrees C or about 900 degrees F.
Pressures at the Surface are about 90 atmospheres.

Close-up images of the surface show that some form of deposition and erosion occurs.
Thanks to the Pioneer, Magellan and Venera radar orbiters, the surface of Venus is now mapped more completely and uniformly than the Earth.
Radar mapping from earth and from orbit indicate large valleys and plateaus, probably craters, and large volcanic complexes. The plateaus on Venus are not continents as on the Earth, and overall Venus is much smoother than Earth.

Topography of Venus

Geography of Venus
Venus has numerous volcanoes. Some scientists think the sulfuric acid in Venus' atmosphere may be of volcanic origin.
Venus seems to have had a planetwide volcanic episode about 600 million years ago that covered much of its surface and covered its earlier craters.

Venus is nearly a twin to the earth in terms of size and density.
Venus is smoother than the Earth and does not show evidence for two kinds of crust as does Earth.
Although volcanically and tectonically active, Venus lacks plate tectonics.
Probably has a core but lacks a magnetic field.

Venus is the brightest (Mag -4) and nearest (as little as 26,000,000 miles) planet to Earth.
It can get up to 45 degrees from the sun and rise or set up to 3-1/2 hours before or after the Sun.

Gerald Schubert and Curt Covey, 1981, The Atmosphere of Venus. Scientific American, vol. 245, no. 1, pp. 66-75
Gordon H. Pettengill, Donald B. Campbell and Harold Masursky, 1980, The Surface of Venus. Scientific American, vol. 243, no. 2, pp. 54-65
Ronald G. Prinn, 1985, The Volcanoes and Clouds of Venus. Scientific American, vol. 242, no. 3, pp. 46-53
Powell, Corey S., Three faces of Venus (radar images based on Magellan probe data) Scientific American, v268 p26-7 May 1993
Powell, Corey S., Venus revealed: stunning maps strip the clouds from a restless planet (Magellan radar images) Scientific American, v266 p16-17 January 1992
Saunders, R. Stephen, The surface of Venus (radar mapping by Magellan spacecraft) Scientific American, v263 p60-5 December 1990

Created 20 May 1997, Last Update 09 March 2005

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