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Venus holds the distinction of being the brightest planet in the Solar System after the Moon and the Sun.
Venus shares numerous traits with our planet; both are composed of rock, have similar sizes and shapes. Venus, Earth’s closest planetary neighbor, orbits the Sun at a closer distance… Nevertheless, amidst the commonalities, notable differences exist, particularly in their formation.
Venus holds the distinction of being the brightest planet in the Solar System after the Moon and the Sun. It is the first celestial body to appear at night and the last to vanish at dawn, outshining all others. As the second planet from the Sun in the solar system, Venus derives its name from the Roman goddess of love and beauty – Venus. Also known as the Evening Star or the Morning Star, Venus is often mistaken for an unidentified flying object (UFO) due to its brightness.
Venus boasts a diameter of 12,092 km (slightly smaller than Earth’s 12,742 km) and a mass equal to 81.5% of Earth’s mass. The rotation of Venus is extremely slow: one day on Venus is equivalent to 224.7 Earth days. A complete orbit around the Sun takes Venus 225 Earth days (compared to Earth’s 365 days).
Extensive exploration of Venus’s terrain and surface measurements has been undertaken by various space probes from Russia and the United States. The data indicates that the planet was formed over 4 billion years ago, but its surface is relatively young, only about 500 million years old.
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Venus is smaller than Earth.
Venus stands alone among the planets in the Solar System by rotating in the opposite direction, moving from East to West. This is unlike other planets which rotate from West to East. In simpler terms, on Venus, the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East.
At an altitude of 60 km, winds on Venus can reach speeds of 400 km/h. The dense atmosphere contributes to a greenhouse effect, making the planet exceedingly hot. At around 80 km altitude, there is something that absorbs all the ultraviolet rays from the Sun, a phenomenon still puzzling scientists.
Some researchers suggest that Venus might have had oceans in the past, which evaporated due to a temperature increase caused by runaway greenhouse effects.
Venus’s entire surface is a barren desert of rocks and dust. Lava flows and active volcanoes might still exist on the planet. Approximately 80% of Venus’s surface is covered by flat volcanic plains, while 70% is covered by volcanic ranges and 10% is highland regions. The carbon dioxide enveloping Venus constitutes a whopping 96.5% of its atmosphere, with the remaining 3.5% being primarily nitrogen.
Venus’s surface is heavily pockmarked by impact craters. Astronomers have identified over 1,000 impact craters distributed across its surface. An astonishing 85% of these craters remain in a pristine state. The craters on Venus range in diameter from 3 km to 280 km. None have diameters smaller than 3 km. The atmospheric pressure on Venus is 92 times greater than that on Earth.
The Soviet Union’s Venera 3 was the first artificial probe to land on Venus in 1966. Ancient Egyptians believed there were two Venuses. As Venus shines the brightest right before sunset and just before dawn, the ancient Egyptians thought it consisted of two separate objects. They named Venus with two titles: Tioumoutiri – the morning star, and Ouaiti – the evening star.
NASA’s Staggering Statement about Venus
Recently, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Science (GISS) simulated whether Venus could maintain a stable climate and liquid water. They discovered that Venus could maintain a temperature range of roughly 50°C to 20°C for up to three billion years. Venus might have once been a habitable planet, storing liquid water for billions of years before a drastic change occurred.
The temperate climate could have been sustained on Venus for about 700-750 million years. Dr. Michael Way from NASA GISS mentioned, “Our hypothesis is that Venus could have had a stable climate for billions of years.” This suggests that “Venus could have been and may be radically different from the Venus we see today.”
Designing an Inflatable Flying Craft to Explore Venus
Northrop Grumman’s VAMP is an inflatable, fan-propelled flying vehicle constructed from lightweight composite materials. Researchers believe it could be the most promising candidate for exploring Venus’s dense sulfuric sky.
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Simulation of the VAMP flying craft. Photo: Northrop Grumman.
VAMP has the ability to fly about 50 km above the planet’s surface, conduct exploration, study chemical composition, and investigate the atmospheric characteristics of Venus. According to Ron Polidan, Chief Designer at Northrop Grumman, VAMP’s wingspan is anticipated to be around 55 meters. The technology is currently at level 3 and needs to progress to at least level 6 for NASA’s design selection phase.