Venus

Venus is the second closest planet to the sun and is between the Earth and mercury. It is visible with the naked eye in the early morning and evening and is often referred to as the Morning Star or the Evening Star. With the exception of the moon, this planet is the brightest object in the sky. It orbits the sun every 225 days and rotates on its axis once every 243 days, making it the slowest rotating planet in the solar system. It is similar in size to Earth, but is covered with clouds, which means that it is hard for space probes to see the surface.

The atmosphere surrounding Venus is made up of dense gases, mostly carbon dioxide. It is also very hot, so much so that there is no water on this planet. Through Project Magellan, scientists have been able to map some of the surface features, which they believe to be very volcanic in nature. There are many mountains and almost twice as many volcanoes as there are on Earth. Since it is so similar to Earth, it is also believed that its core is mainly rock and that it does have a mantle and a crust. Although the mantle is dry, the core is partially liquid, like that of the Earth.

There are over 1000 impact craters on Venus caused by meteors, comets and asteroids. While there is no rainfall on this planet, it does rain sulphuric acid. Even though it is farther from the sun than Mercury, the temperature on the surface of the planet is hotter than Mercury, with the temperature remaining mostly constant during day and night. On the mountain peaks and at high altitudes, the temperatures are much colder and there is ice and snow. The clouds surrounding the planet produce lightning.

While Venus does have a magnetic field, it is smaller and weaker than that of Earth. The magnetosphere is too weak to be able to offer any protection form radiation. It rotates clockwise, rather than counter-clockwise like the other planets., which means that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Like Mercury, Venus has no moon, although it does have an asteroid that seems to follow its orbital path.