VENUS  

Katy Newman   

Venus is the second brightest planet besideds the Sun and the Moon

Venus is only slightly smaller than earth.  

It is also the second closest planet to the sun.<The Solar System  

Venus has a sort of, unusual orbit because it moves very slowly (about 243 Earth days per Venus day.  

Venus and Earth have many similar characteristics: 

• Venus is only a bit smaller than Earth (95% of Earth's diameter, 80% of Earth's mass)

• Both Earth and Venus have few craters indicating relatively young surfaces

• Their densities and chemical compositions are similar to each other

   

Because of these similarities, it was thought that below its dense clouds Venus might be very Earthlike and could possibly have life. But, unfortunately, more detailed study of Venus says that in many important ways it is very different from Earth. It may be one of the worst places for life in the whole solar system!  

There are strong (350 kph) winds on the cloud tops of Venus but winds at the surface are very slow, no more than a few kilometers per hour... at the most.   

It has been said that Venus once had large amounts of water (like Earth) but that it all boiled away. Venus is now very dry.  The same thing would have happened to Earht if it had been closer to the Sun.  

There are no small craters on Venus. Thesmall meteoroids burn up in Venus' dense atmosphere before reaching the surface. Craters on Venus come in bunches indicating that big meteoroids that do reach the surface usually break up in the atmosphere.  

<"molten rocky mantle"

The inside of Venus is probably very similar to Earths: an iron core about 3000 km in radius, a molten rocky mantle containing the majority of the planet. Recent results from the Magellan gravity data say that Venus' crust is stronger and thicker than people had assumed.   

<Venus                                                           

^Venus is the brightest circle in

the sky(in this picture)