EXPLORE THE WORLDS ABOVE
EXPLORE THE WORLDS ABOVE
LET’S EXPLORE VENUS
- Venus is almost the same size and density as the Earth.
- It takes Venus 243 Earth days to rotate once on its axis.
- Venus spins backwards. On Venus, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east!
- Venus is by far the hottest planet in our Solar System, hotter even than Mercury! The average temperature on the surface of Venus is 850 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The thick atmosphere on Venus has over 90 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth.
- If a human being stepped on to the surface of Venus, they would be crushed by the atmosphere.
- Venus’s orbit is smaller than Earth’s, so Venus always appears close to the Sun in the sky. This is why it is called the “morning star” or “evening star.”
Pioneer Venus
Launched: May 20, 1978
NASA’s Pioneer Venus 1 was the first of a two-spacecraft orbiter-probe combination designed to study the atmosphere of Venus. It was the first American spacecraft to orbit Venus. Source: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/pioneer-venus-1/in-depth/
Mariner R-2
Launched: Aug. 27, 1962
NASA’s Mariner 2 was the world’s first successful interplanetary spacecraft. The spacecraft flew by Venus, sending back valuable new information about interplanetary space and the Venusian atmosphere. Source: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/mariner-02/in-depth/
Source: NASA/JPL/USGS
Published: June 4, 1998
The hemispheric view of Venus, as revealed by more than a decade of radar investigations culminating in the 1990-1994 Magellan mission, is centered at 180 degrees east longitude. The Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98 percent of Venus at a resolution of about 100 m; the effective resolution of this image is about 3 km.
Source: ISAS, JAXA
Published: June 11, 2016
Venus was captured in infrared light showing a surprising amount of atmospheric structure on its night side. The vertical orange terminator stripe between night and day is so wide because of light is so diffused by Venus’ thick atmosphere.
Source: NASA/JPL
Published: November 14, 1996
This is a 225 meter per pixel Magellan radar image mosaic of Venus, centered at 47 degrees south latitude, 25 degrees east longitude in the Lada region. The scene is approximately 550 kilometers (341 miles) east-west by 630 kilometers (391 miles) north-south. The mosaic shows a system of east-trending radar-bright and dark lava flows encountering and breaching a north-trending ridge belt (left of center). Upon breaching the ridge belt, the lavas pool in a vast, radar-bright deposit (covering approximately 100,000 square kilometers [right side of image]). The source caldera for the lava flows, named Ammavaru, lies approximately 300 kilometers (186 miles) west of the scene.