Venus, the second planet from the solar, is the most popular and brightest planet within the photo voltaic system.
The scorching planet is known as after the Roman goddess of affection and wonder and is the one planet named after a feminine. Venus might have been named after essentially the most stunning deity of the pantheon as a result of it shone the brightest among the many 5 planets recognized to historic astronomers.
Venus fast information:
Size of day: 243 Earth days
Size of yr: 225 Earth days
Distance from solar: 67 million miles (108 million kilometers)
Variety of moons: 0
Floor temperature: 900° F (480° C)
Diameter: 7,520 miles (12,100 km)
Atmospheric composition: 96% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen.
In historic occasions, Venus was typically regarded as two completely different stars, the night star and the morning star — that’s, those that first appeared at sundown and dawn. In Latin, they had been respectively generally known as Vesper and Lucifer. In Christian occasions, Lucifer, or “light-bringer,” turned generally known as the title of Devil earlier than his fall. Nevertheless, additional observations of Venus within the house age present a really hellish atmosphere. This makes Venus a really troublesome planet to look at from up shut as a result of spacecraft don’t survive lengthy on its floor.
Associated: What’s a ‘morning star,’ and what’s an ‘night star’?
Venus: Dimension, composition and temperature
Venus and Earth are sometimes referred to as twins as a result of they’re comparable in measurement, mass, density, composition and gravity. Venus is just a little bit bit smaller than our house planet, with a mass of about 80% of Earth’s.
The inside of Venus is product of a metallic iron core that is roughly 2,400 miles (6,000 km) huge. Venus’ molten rocky mantle is roughly 1,200 miles (3,000 km) thick. Venus’ crust is usually basalt and is estimated to be 6 to 12 miles (10 to twenty km) thick, on common.
Venus is the most popular planet within the photo voltaic system. Though Venus is just not the planet closest to the solar, its dense environment traps warmth in a runaway model of the greenhouse impact that warms Earth. Because of this, temperatures on Venus attain 880 levels Fahrenheit (471 levels Celsius), which is greater than scorching sufficient to soften lead. Spacecraft have survived only some hours after touchdown on the planet earlier than being destroyed.
With scorching temperatures, Venus additionally has a hellish environment, that consists primarily of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid and solely hint quantities of water. Its environment is heavier than that of another planet, resulting in a floor strain that is over 90 occasions that of Earth — much like the strain that exists 3,300 ft (1,000 meters) deep within the ocean.
Venus’ floor is extraordinarily dry. Throughout its evolution, ultraviolet rays from the solar evaporated water rapidly, protecting the planet in a protracted molten state. There isn’t any liquid water on its floor at present as a result of the scorching warmth created by its ozone-filled environment would trigger water to right away boil away.
Roughly two-thirds of the Venusian floor is roofed by flat, clean plains which can be marred by hundreds of volcanoes, a few of that are nonetheless energetic at present, starting from about 0.5 to 150 miles (0.8 to 240 km) huge, with lava flows carving lengthy, winding canals which can be as much as greater than 3,000 miles (5,000 km) in size.
Six mountainous areas make up about one-third of the Venusian floor. One mountain vary, referred to as Maxwell, is about 540 miles (870 km) lengthy and reaches as much as some 7 miles (11.3 km) excessive, making it the very best function on the planet.
Venus additionally possesses a number of floor options which can be in contrast to something on Earth. For instance, Venus has coronae, or crowns — ring-like constructions that vary from roughly 95 to 1,300 miles (155 to 2100 km) huge. Scientists consider these shaped when scorching materials beneath the planet’s crust rose, warping the planet’s floor. Venus additionally has tesserae, or tiles — raised areas during which many ridges and valleys have shaped in several instructions.
With circumstances on Venus that might be described as infernal, the traditional title for Venus — Lucifer — appears to suit. Nevertheless, the title does not carry any fiendish connotations; Lucifer means “light-bringer,” and when seen from Earth, Venus is brighter than another planet and even any star within the night time sky due to its extremely reflective clouds and its closeness to our planet.
What’s Venus’ orbit like?
Venus takes 243 Earth days to rotate on its axis, which is by far the slowest of any of the foremost planets. And, due to this sluggish spin, its metallic core can’t generate a magnetic discipline much like Earth’s. The magnetic discipline of Venus is 0.000015 occasions that of Earth’s magnetic discipline.
Venus orbital parameters
Based on NASA:
Common distance from the solar: 67 million miles (108 million km).
Perihelion (closest strategy to the solar): 66,785,000 miles (107,480,000 km).
Aphelion (farthest distance from the solar): 67,692,000 miles (108,941,000 km).
If considered from above, Venus rotates on its axis in a path that is the alternative of most planets’. Meaning on Venus, the solar would seem to rise within the west and set within the east. On Earth, the solar seems to rise within the east and set within the west.
The Venusian yr — the time it takes to orbit the solar — is about 225 Earth days lengthy. Usually, that might imply that days on Venus could be longer than years. Nevertheless, due to Venus’ curious retrograde rotation, the time from one dawn to the subsequent is just about 117 Earth days lengthy. The final time we noticed Venus transit in entrance of the solar was in 2012, and the subsequent time shall be in 2117.
Venus’ local weather
The very prime layer of Venus’ clouds zips across the planet each 4 Earth days, propelled by hurricane-force winds touring roughly 224 mph (360 kph). This superrotation of the planet’s environment, some 60 occasions sooner than Venus itself rotates, is perhaps certainly one of Venus’ greatest mysteries.
The clouds additionally carry indicators of meteorological occasions generally known as gravity waves, induced when winds blow over geological options, inflicting rises and falls within the layers of air. The winds on the planet’s floor are a lot slower, estimated to be only a few miles per hour.
Uncommon stripes within the higher clouds of Venus are dubbed “blue absorbers” or “ultraviolet absorbers” as a result of they strongly take up gentle within the blue and ultraviolet wavelengths. These are absorbing an enormous quantity of power — practically half of the entire photo voltaic power the planet absorbs. As such, they appear to play a serious position in protecting Venus as hellish as it’s. Their actual composition stays unsure; Some scientists counsel it may even be life, though many issues would must be dominated out earlier than that conclusion is accepted.
Associated: The ten Weirdest Details About Venus
The Venus Categorical spacecraft, a European Area Company mission that operated between 2005 and 2014, discovered proof of lightning on the planet, which shaped inside clouds of sulfuric acid, in contrast to Earth’s lightning, which kinds in clouds of water. Venus’ lightning is exclusive within the photo voltaic system. It’s of explicit curiosity to scientists as a result of it is doable {that electrical} discharges from lightning may assist kind the molecules wanted to jumpstart life, which is what some scientists consider occurred on Earth.
Venus exploration
The US, Soviet Union, European Area Company and Japan Aerospace Exploration Company have deployed many spacecraft to Venus — greater than 20 thus far. NASA’s Mariner 2 got here inside 21,600 miles (34,760 km) of Venus in 1962, making it the primary planet to be noticed by a passing spacecraft. The Soviet Union’s Venera 7 was the primary spacecraft to land on one other planet, having landed on Venus in December 1970. Venera 9 returned the primary images of the Venusian floor. The primary Venusian orbiter, NASA’s Magellan, generated maps of 98% of the planet’s floor, displaying options as small as 330 ft (100 meters) throughout.
The European Area Company’s Venus Categorical spent eight years in orbit round Venus with a big number of devices and confirmed the presence of lightning there. In August 2014, because the satellite tv for pc started wrapping up its mission, controllers engaged in a month-long maneuver that plunged the spacecraft into the outer layers of the planet’s environment. Venus Categorical survived the daring journey, then moved into the next orbit, the place it spent a number of months. By December 2014, the spacecraft ran out of propellant and finally burned up in Venus’ environment.
Associated: Venera timeline: The Soviet Union’s Venus missions in photos
Japan’s Akatsuki mission launched to Venus in 2010, however the spacecraft’s major engine died throughout a pivotal orbit-insertion burn, sending the craft hurtling into house. Utilizing smaller thrusters, the Japanese workforce efficiently carried out a burn to right the spacecraft’s course. A subsequent burn in November 2015 put Akatsuki into orbit across the planet. In 2017, Akatsuki noticed one other big “gravity wave” in Venus’ environment. The spacecraft nonetheless orbits Venus to at the present time, learning the planet’s climate patterns and trying to find energetic volcanoes.
As of at the least late 2019, NASA and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Area Analysis Institute have mentioned collaborating on the Venera-D mission, which would come with an orbiter, a lander and maybe a solar-powered airship.
“We’re on the pen-and-paper stage the place we’re contemplating what science questions do we would like this mission to reply and what elements of a mission would finest reply these questions,” Tracy Gregg, a planetary geologist on the College at Buffalo, informed Area.com in 2018. “The earliest doable launch date we might be taking a look at is 2026, and who is aware of if we may meet that.”
NASA has extra not too long ago funded a number of extraordinarily early-stage mission ideas that might take a look at Venus within the coming a long time, below the NASA Modern Superior Ideas Program. This features a “steampunk” rover that might use old-school levers as an alternative of electronics (which might fry in Venus’ environment) and a balloon that might try Venus from low altitudes. Individually, some NASA researchers have been investigating the potential for utilizing airships to discover the extra temperate areas of Venus’ environment.
In 2021, NASA introduced two new missions to Venus that may launch by 2030.
The company introduced on June 2, 2021, that they are going to be sending missions DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, chosen from a shortlist of 4 spacecraft, for the subsequent spherical of Discovery missions to Venus.
DAVINCI (Deep Ambiance Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry and Imaging) will dive by way of the planet’s environment, learning the way it adjustments over time. VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy) will map the planet’s floor from its orbit utilizing radar.
On June 12, 2021, ESA introduced its subsequent Venus orbiter – EnVision. “A brand new period within the exploration of our closest, but wildly completely different, Photo voltaic System neighbour awaits us,” Günther Hasinger, ESA’s director of science, mentioned in an announcement. “Along with the newly introduced NASA-led Venus missions, we can have a particularly complete science programme at this enigmatic planet properly into the subsequent decade.” ESA hopes to launch the mission to Venus within the early 2030s.
Is there life on Venus?
Whereas locations in our photo voltaic system just like the moons Enceladus or Titan and even planet Mars are at the moment the go-to spots to seek for indicators of extraterrestrial life.
However a breakthrough scientific discovery in 2020 all of the sudden had scientists discussing whether or not or not it was doable that life may by some means exist within the present-day hellish atmospheres of Venus.
Now, scientists assume that it’s probably that, billions of years in the past, Venus may have been liveable and pretty much like current-day Earth. However since then, it has undergone a drastic greenhouse impact that has resulted in Venus’ present iteration with scorching floor temperatures and an environment that many describe as “hellish.”
Nevertheless, in 2020, scientists revealed the invention of a wierd chemical within the planet’s clouds that some assume might be an indication of life: phosphine.
Phosphine is a chemical compound that has been seen on Earth in addition to Jupiter and Saturn. Scientists assume that, on Venus, it may seem because it does on Earth, for very brief quantities of time within the planet’s environment.
However what does this phosphine discovery need to do with the seek for life?
Properly, whereas phosphine exists in unusual methods resembling rat poison, it has additionally been noticed alongside teams of sure microorganisms and a few scientists assume that, on Earth, the compound is produced by microbes as they decay chemically.
This has induced some to suspect that, if microbes may create phosphine, then maybe microbes is perhaps chargeable for the phosphine in Venus’ environment. For the reason that discovery, there have been follow-up analyses which have made some doubt whether or not or not the compound is created by microbes, however scientists are persevering with to analyze, particularly with new missions deliberate for the planet.
Venus quiz
Put your Venus information to the take a look at with this brief Venus quiz.
Further sources
Learn extra about the potential for life on Venus on this article from The Dialog. Uncover each image from Venus’ floor with the Planetary Society. Discover a variety of similarities and variations between Earth and Venus with ESA.
Bibliography
O’Callaghan, Jonathan. “Life on Venus? Scientists hunt for the reality.” Nature 586.7828 (2020): 182-183.
Basilevsky, Alexander T., and James W. Head. “The floor of Venus.” Experiences on Progress in Physics 66.10 (2003): 1699.
Kane, Stephen R., et al. “Venus as a laboratory for exoplanetary science.” Journal of Geophysical Analysis: Planets 124.8 (2019): 2015-2028.
Venus: NASA overviewPhoto voltaic System Exploration.