Venus

The second planet Venus in our solar system is the closest to Earth in accumulation and dimension, is nearly round, no substantial destruction. It is the brightest star in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. It is visible after sunset or before departure at no great distance from it, why is only visible during the first hours after sunrise and evening star, or during the last hours before the sunrise as morning star.

The outside of Venus is a real hell, enclosed by a thick fatal cloud cover; temperature is 500 º C, organism responsible greenhouse. This defines it as the planet with the highest temperature of the solar system and also the most volcanic.

Its impression is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide with some nitrogen, is so heavy that the pressure on the surface of the planet is 90 times the Earth's atmosphere (on Earth, the pressure begins to be similar 1 km from deep under the sea), a human being, would be crushed by pressure. The abundance of carbon produces a strong greenhouse effect, trapping heat energy from the sun in the atmospheric layers near the surface where the temperature reaches 480 ° C. Venus clouds are formed by drops of sulfuric acid and extend in a layer of high altitude, between 48 and 58 km above the surface, occasionally occur in the atmosphere strong electric shock. The results of the first successful probe Mariner 2 were in 1962, and proved that Venus is the planet of higher temperature of the solar system as mentioned above. It was found that its rotation period is 243.2 days, greater than that of revolution is 224.7 days, something unique in the solar system also has the peculiarity that Venus rotates retrograde, or of this to west around an axis that departs very little from the perpendicular to the orbit, its exact value is 178 °. Until now, the reason is unknown.

In them, we can see its rocky surface; stones precede the disintegration of the rock work of the intense heat and highly corrosive components of the atmosphere.

It is possible that Venus was once like Earth, with less hostile conditions in the early stages of the formation of our solar system at that time, our Sun, was about 30% dimmer than now, Venus and possibly Earth could have evolved in a similar way, but then, when our Sun increased its power Venus was on terms more favorable than our planet, getting the brunt of increasing the surface temperature and its oceans to evaporate and carbonates that escaped of the rocks into the atmosphere, is what could have produced the "greenhouse effect" with a thick layer of poisonous clouds, leading to suffer the high temperatures today. Thus, any life that may have existed was extinguished.

We detected a large increase in 1978, and then decreased gradually. The conclusion, to which this led, is that there was a very violent volcanic eruption on the surface, producing increase large amounts of sulfur dioxide and ash particles in the atmosphere, possibly up to a height of 70 km, thus forming sulfuric acid particles were added to the existing clouds. This suggests that Venus is a planet with lots of volcanic activity.

Venus has its poles in white areas, suggesting the possibility of some form of ice.

The module carries Pioneer radar equipment which enabled special drawing maps of the surface of Venus for the most part. Of these surfaces are very vast plain remarkable that occupies 70% of the total area, while the depressions represent 20%. The highlands, are concentrated in two regions, one is called Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra north in Ecuador. Ishtar has a size that approximates the size of Australia, has average altitude of 3 km, this is a high plateau with mountains, the highest of them is Maxwell of 8.2 km on the plateau, giving the impression of a huge possibly inactive volcano. Meanwhile Aphrodite, of 9,700 by 3,200 km, consists of mountainous areas in the east and west, separated by a low region. One of the most important volcanic areas is Alpha Regio. In these volcanic regions, there are rays similar to those generated on our planet in the tops of volcanoes. There are no moving plates on Venus as on Earth. When volcanic eruptions occur, the resulting magma breaks through the thick crust. All this suggests a fascinating, wonderful and frightening.

Venus's orbit is nearly circular and the distance from the Sun does not vary by more than 2 million miles. Transits of Venus can be seen from Earth, are rare.

Data from Venus:

Equatorial diameter: 12,100 km

Mass (Earth = 1): 0.815

Mean density (water = 1): 5.25

Ecuador surface gravity (Earth = 1): 0.88

Inclination of the rotation axis: 177.3 °

Average distance from Sun: 108.2 million kilometers

Rotation Period: 5816.32 hours

Duration of day: The day of Venus lasts about 243 Earth days, comes in a retrograde (east to west), unlike the other planets.

Length of year: 255 days.

Natural satellites: None

Atmospheric composition:

Carbon dioxide: 96%

Nitrogen: 34% Trace: sulfur dioxide, water vapor, carbon monoxide, argon, helium, neon, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride.