Venus Information
Venus, whose Greek equivalent was Aphrodite, was the Roman goddess of love & beauty and probably gave her name to the planet because it was the brightest object in the sky besides the Sun & Moon. At one time, it was considered two separate bodies: the morning star, Eosphorus and the evening star. Hesperus. The 2nd planet from the Sun, it's the 6th largest.
At first glance, if Earth had a twin, it would be Venus. They are similar in size, mass, composition, & distance from the Sun. But there the similarities end. Venus has no ocean and is covered by thick, rapidly spinning clouds that trap surface heat, creating a scorched greenhouse-like world with temperatures hot enough to melt lead and pressure as intense as that felt 900 meters deep in Earth's oceans.
Venus has no known satellites, but between the 1670s and 1770s, there were several observations of what appeared to be a satellite approximately ¼ the size of Venus. However, recent observations have not revealed any satellite.
This Image of "Venus" is Centered at 0 degrees east longitude, Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the 1st cycle of Magellan mapping are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Gaps are filled with Pioneer Venus Orbiter data, or a constant mid-range value. Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structure.
Next, we'll be passing our home planet, Earth.
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