# Venus

**Venus** (seembol: ) is the seicont planet frae the Sun, orbitin it ivery 224.7 Yird days. The planet is named efter the Roman goddess o luve an beauty. Efter the Muin, it is the brichtest naitural object in the nicht sky, reachin an apparent magnitude o −4.6, bricht enough tae cast shadaes. Acause Venus is an inferior planet frae Yird, it niver appears tae ventur far frae the Sun: its elongation reaches a maximum o 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brichtness shairtly afore sunrise or shortly efter sunset, for which reason it haes been referred tad bi auncient culturs as the Mornin Star or Evenin Star.

Venus is a terrestrial planet an is whiles cried Yird's "sister planet" acause o thair seemilar size, gravity, an bouk composeetion (Venus is baith the closest planet tae Yird an the planet closest in size tae Yird). Houiver, it haes an aa been shawn tae be very different frae Yird in ither respects. It haes the densest atmosphere o the fower terrestrial planets, consistin o mair nor 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that o Yird's. Wi a mean surface temperatur o 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F), Venus is bi far the hettest planet in the Solar Seestem. It haes na carbon cycle tae lock carbon back intae rocks an surface features, nor daes it seem tae hae ony organic life tae absorb it in biomass. Venus is shrouded bi an opaque layer o heichly reflective cloods o sulfuric acid, preventin its surface frae bein seen frae space in veesible licht. Venus micht hae possessed oceans in the past, but thir wad hae vaporized as the temperatur rose due tae a runaway greenhoose effect. The watter haes maist probably photodissociated, an, acause o the lack o a planetary magnetic field, the free hydrogen haes been swept intae interplanetary space bi the solar wind. Venus's surface is a dry desertscape interspersed wi slab-lik rocks an periodically refreshed bi volcanism.

## Freemit airtins

* Venus Profile Archived 2011-08-31 at the Wayback Machine at NASA's Solar Seestem Exploration steid
* Missions tae Venus Archived 2015-02-10 at the Wayback Machine (Hostit bi NASA)
* Gallery o Venus exploration images Archived 2015-03-29 at the Wayback Machine (Hosted bi NASA)
* The Soviet Exploration o Venus, Image catalog
* Venus page at *The Nine Planets*
* NASA page aboot the Venera missions Archived 2015-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
* Magellan mission home page
* Pioneer Venus information frae NASA Archived 2015-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
* Detailed information aboot transits o Venus
* Geody Venus, a sairch ingine for surface featurs
* Cairts o Venus in NASA Warld Wind Archived 2015-02-06 at the Wayback Machine
* Chasin Venus, Observin the Transits o Venus Smithsonian Institution Libraries
* Venus Crater Database Lunar an Planetary Institute
* Calculate/show the current phase o Venus Archived 2007-09-22 at the Wayback Machine (U.S. Naval Observatory)
* Venus Astronomy Cast episode No. 50, includes full transcript.
* Thorsten Dambeck: *The Blazing Hell Behind the Veil Archived 2010-01-18 at the Wayback Machine*, MaxPlanckResearch, 4/2009, p. 26–33

### Cartographic resoorces

* PDS Cairt-a-Planet & Venus Nomenclature Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
* Gazeteer o Planetary Nomenclature – Venus (USGS)
* Cairt o Venus Archived 2015-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
* Movie o Venus Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine at Naitional Oceanic an Atmospheric Admeenistration