NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public domainVenus
Earth's twin in size, a runaway greenhouse in fact
Overview
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. Similar in size and mass to Earth, Venus has no liquid water, and its atmosphere is far thicker and denser than that of any other rocky body in the Solar System. The atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide and has a thick cloud layer of sulfuric acid that spans the whole planet. At the mean surface level, the atmosphere reaches a temperature of 737 K, making it the hottest planet in the solar system and also a pressure 92 times greater than Earth's at sea level, turning the lowest layer of the atmosphere into a supercritical fluid. From Earth, Venus is visible as a star-like point of light, appearing brighter than any other natural point of light in the sky, as either the brightest "morning star" or "evening star". It was also given the poetic name Ēarendel in Old English, meaning "ray of light" along with the two previous epithets.
Source: Wikipedia
Why it matters
- Surface temperature around 465 °C under 92 bars of carbon dioxide — hotter than Mercury despite being farther from the Sun.
- Rotates backwards and so slowly that a Venusian day (243 Earth days) is longer than its year (225 days).
- Sulfuric-acid clouds hide a volcanic surface; the 2020 phosphine claim reignited debate about life in the clouds.
System
- Discovered
- known since antiquity
- Star
- Sun · G2 V · 5,772 K · 1 M☉
- System
- 8 known planets
Orbit in the Solar System
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 88 d | 0.387 AU | 0.38 R⊕ | 0.055 M⊕ | 440 K |
| Venus | 224.7 d | 0.723 AU | 0.95 R⊕ | 0.82 M⊕ | 737 K |
| Earth | 365.2 d | 1 AU | 1 R⊕ | 1 M⊕ | 288 K |
| Mars | 687 d | 1.52 AU | 0.53 R⊕ | 0.11 M⊕ | 208 K |
| Ceres | 4.6 yr | 2.77 AU | 0.07 R⊕ | 0.94 ×10²¹ kg | — |
| Jupiter | 11.9 yr | 5.2 AU | 1 R♃ | 1 M♃ | 163 K |
| Saturn | 29.4 yr | 9.57 AU | 0.84 R♃ | 95.11 M⊕ | 133 K |
| Uranus | 83.7 yr | 19.16 AU | 0.36 R♃ | 14.53 M⊕ | 78 K |
| Neptune | 163.7 yr | 30.18 AU | 3.88 R⊕ | 17.08 M⊕ | 73 K |
| Pluto | 247.9 yr | 39.48 AU | 0.19 R⊕ | 13 ×10²¹ kg | 48 K |
| Haumea | 282 yr | 43.1 AU | 0.12 R⊕ | — | 50 K |
| Makemake | 306.6 yr | 45.6 AU | 0.11 R⊕ | 3.1 ×10²¹ kg | — |
| Eris | 561.3 yr | 67.9 AU | 0.18 R⊕ | 17 ×10²¹ kg | 43 K |
| Sedna | 12,676.2 yr | 544 AU | 0.08 R⊕ | — | 12 K |
By the numbers
- Radius
- 0.95 R⊕6,045 km
- Mass
- 0.82 M⊕4.87 ×10²⁴ kg
- Orbital period
- 224.7 d0.62 yr
- Distance from Sun
- 0.723 AU108 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0.007nearly circular
- Mean temperature
- 464 °C737 K
- Gravity
- 8.9 m/s²0.91 g
- Day length
- 2,802 h116.8 Earth days
- Moons
- 0
- Density
- 5.24 g/cm³
- Axial tilt
- 177.4°
Sources
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public domain · Public domain · image page
Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Taglines and highlights are editorial.