Venus is a cloud-veiled world, whose thick atmosphere's "surface pressure" is over 90 times that of Earth's!  (1.6.x)   (1.4.1).   Here is a view of Venus's surface beneath its clouds!  (1.6.x)   (1.4.1)

Venus, the second planet from the Sun, has the most circular orbit of
the major planets!
(1.6.x)   (1.4.1)

On Venus it "rains" sulfuric acid stronger than the acid found
in car batteries!

 
 

 
 
 
 

Venus exhibits an immense V-shaped
cloud structure, which girdles the planet!  (1.6.x)

 

SURFACE VIEWS

Venus's surface is so hostile that no lander spacecraft has operated there for more than a few hours!  So, few photos of this harsh surface exist.

Searing Venus: © SkyMarvels.

Russian VENERA Spacecraft:

    #9: 1975 Oct 22   

    #10: 1975 Oct 25   

    #13: 1982 Mar 1   

    #14: 1982 Mar 5   

Here's a cool NASA artist's impression that shows

Pioneer Venus Multiprobe

Here are NASA artist's con- cepts of the  DaVinci Mission

Descent       Landing

Here's another cool NASA artist's impression that shows an extremely tough  Proposed Venus Rover 

Here is  NASA's Proposed Venus Landsailer  

VENUS ACTIVITIES

VIEW VENUS IN
BROAD DAYLIGHT

That's right, it can be done!  Most people don't realize that Venus is often visible during the day, so you'll probably be the first in your group to view this brightest of the planets in broad daylight!  Use the tips on  this page  to help you with your viewing.


MAKE A PAPER MODEL GLOBE OF VENUS

From the cool  Solar System Scope  site, download these  paper globe templates  for all the planets, the Sun and the Moon—including templates for both a cloud-covered and cloudless Venus!  Make a Venus, half with clouds, half without!  Then make the full Solar System!

CELES-TIPS

The following will help you enjoy this page's 1.6.x and 1.4.1 links that run events directly in CELESTIA.  If you're new to the program, these tips will also help you learn to use it.

Are you unfamiliar with our 1.6.x and 1.4.1 links?  For an explanation  click here.

You'll find more information about many of CELESTIA's controls on our  Learning Center  page.


VENUS

View Venus in 3-D    3-D in Orbit
Current Views and Conditions from Earth
Current Location in the Constel.   Skypath 2024
Current Location in Orbit
Current Year's Greatest Elongation  
Next Transit Pair:    2117 Dec 10-11    2125 Dec 8

Physical Properties:
      Equatorial Size:    Compare in 3-D
            Radius:    6,051.8 km
            Diameter:    12,103.6 km
      Diameter (Earth = 1):    0.949
      Rotational Flattening:    0
      Mass (Earth = 1):    0.815
      Volume (Earth = 1):    0.857
      Mean Density (Water = 1):    5.24
      Mean Density (Earth = 1):    0.951
      Surface Gravity (Earth = 1):    0.905
      Surface Temperatures:  average  462°C  (863°F)  
      Axial Tilt:    177.36° 
            Where Poles Point 

Compared to the other
major planets, Venus—
shown cloudless here— spins backwards (retro- grade) and quite slowly!
If viewed from "above"
the Solar System, its ro-
tation would appear to proceed "clockwise".

      Rotation:
            Direction:    Retrograde
            Period:
                  Synodic ("Day" in Earth solar* days):    116.75
                  Sidereal (Earth solar* days):    243.02
            Note: Earth Day Lengths
                 Mean Solar:  24.0000 hours (24h00m00s)
                 Sidereal:  23.9345 hr (23h56m4.1s)
      Albedo (geometric):    0.67 (highest of Major Planets)
      Magnetic Field (Earth = 1):    ~ 0.000015 (very weak)

NASA's Overview of Venus
NASA / JPL's Photojournal pages for Venus

Venus Surface:
      Global Mosaic  (26.4 km per pixel)
      NASA's Venus Trek

Venus Atmosphere  

 
While Venus's scorched
surface below rotates very slowly, its thick clouds sweep around the planet about every four to five Earth days!

Venus Structure:
      Compared to Other Inner Planets  

Spacecraft in 3-D:
      Venera  7    12-14    15-16 
      Vega 1 & 2   

Number of Moons:    0
Ring System:    No

Planet Classifications:
      Inner Planet  (along with Mercury, Earth & Mars)
      Terrestrial Planet  (primarily Earth-like structure)
      Inferior Planet  (has smaller orbit than Earth and
            exhibits a full range of phases)
            Current Phase of Venus
            Phases of the Inner Planets Video
            Phases of Venus Sim   Another
            Configurations Sim  (in Orbit Sizes box
                  select Earth and Venus)
            No. of Greatest Elongations per Yr:  0, 1 or 2  

Orbit:   (1.6.x)   (1.4.1)
      Period:    224.701 Earth solar* days
      Distance from Sun:
            Mean (Earth = 1 AU):    0.723 AU
            Mean:    108,210,000 km
            Perihelion:    107,480,000 km   (0.718 AU)
            Aphelion:    108,940,000 km   (0.728 AU)
      Velocity:
            Mean:    126,072 km/hr
            Min:    125,244 km/hr
            Max:    126,936 km/hr
      Eccentricity:    0.0067
      Inclination to Ecliptic:    3.39°


      When Venus's Orbit Appears "Edge-On" from Earth
      Transits (in front of the Sun):
            Pattern:    Pairs 8 Years Apart
                  Pairs Alternate by 121½ then 105½ Yrs
            Last Pair:    2004 Jun 8;  2012 Jun 5-6
            Last Pair:    2004 Jun 8    2012 Jun 5-6
            Next Pair:    2117 Dec 10-11    2125 Dec 8
            Currently all occur in June or December
            Wikipedia's Transit of Venus page
            NASA's Six-Millenium Catalog of Venus Transits
            NASA Graphic of the 2004 and 2012 Transits
            NASA 2012 June 5-6 Transit Page
            NASA SDO's 2012 Venus Transit video
            video credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Obs/Goddard Sp Flt Ctr
           
            Let's see how CELESTIA depicts this event, the
            last of its kind for over a hundred years  (1.6.x).
            Compare it to the video directly above.

Partial Information Source: NASA Fact Sheets


ADJECTIVES MEANING
"pertaining to Venus"

      Venerean, Venusian
      Cytherean (from Greek goddess, Cythera)


VENUS: Its Phases as an Inferior Planet

MERCURY'S & VENUS'S SKY PATHS 2013–2014

NASA/RASC Conceptual Mission to Venus
video credit: NASA/RASC

VENUS: Magellan Planet Flyovers/Radar Calibration Results
video credit: NASA/JPL


Here's a nice NASA page:  Timeline of Venus Explora- tion Missions.  Lots of good background info here!




Home   Intro   News   Gallery   Sky-Gifts   Bonuses   Tips
Learning Ctr   Help   Links   Credits   Legal   Contact Us

© 2007- by  Gary M. Winter.  All rights reserved.

Interested in political cartoons and humor?
Check out  The HIPPLOMATS™.
 

SkyMarvels, Sky Marvels, SkyMarvels.com, Venus, View its Current Distance, Current Apparent Size, Current Phase, Current Position in Orbit and much more! celestia4all, celestiaforall, CELESTIA, astronomy, space, simulations, animations, downloadable astronomy posters, stars, planets, Inner Planets, Outer Planets, Inferior Planets, Superior Planets, moons, asteroids, comets, Oort Cloud, galaxy, galaxies, Milky Way, Andromeda, globular clusters, binaries, quasars, black holes, supermassive black holes, telescope, telescopes, planetarium, software, freestuff, satellites, add-ons, addons, scripts, eclipses, Solar Eclipses, Lunar Eclipses, Solar Eclipse Finder, Lunar Eclipse Finder, mutual eclipses, transits, occultations, Solar System, CELES-TOOLS, celeSTARrium, CELX, CELX programming, Freebies, multiple views, atronomical unit, light year, parsec, meteors, meteor showers, Perseids, Geminids, Leonids, barycenter, time, Time Zones, tides, alignments, conjunctions, oppositions, seasons, apogees, perigees, aphelion, perihelion, Earth, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Galilean Moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Saturn, Titan, rings, Uranus, Neptune, Triton, E-MSpectrum, electromagnetic spectrum, astronaut, equinoxes, solstices, precession, rotation, spin, inclination, tilt, Ecliptic, orbits, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola

Planet Comparison HD vid.


Donate safely with: PayPal

and receive one or more
Sky-Gifts.  Your support is greatly appreciated!

NOTE: you do not need a PayPal account to donate.

SKY VIEWING
SOLAR SYSTEM
THE SUN
MERCURY
VENUS
EARTH
THE MOON
MARS
JUPITER
SATURN
URANUS
NEPTUNE
SMALLER WORLDS
STELLAR OBJECTS
EXOPLANETS
DEEP-SKY OBJECTS
SCALE OF THE COSMOS
———————
SKY-FUN / SKY-GAMES

VENUS FUN FACTS

When at its brightest, Venus can be seen in full daylight!  But you have to know where to look for it.

To us here on Earth, Venus exhibits phases  like those of the Moon!  But, while lunar phases progress across the Moon from west to east (rel- ative to our sky directions), Venus's phases appear to progress "backwards", that is, from east to west!

The phases of Venus are not of as uniform in their dura- tion and timing as those of the Moon!  As an  Inferior Planet, Venus appears more than "half-illuminated" for a good bit more than half of its orbit!

Venus's atmosphere is so thick that its pressure at the planet's surface is close to that found half a mile deep in Earth's oceans!

Venus's rotation is so slow that the planet's day is longer than its year!

Venus spins backwards on its axis, compared to all of the other major planets!

Venus has the most circular orbit of the major planets!

Due to the size of its orbit, Venus can often provide "slingshot effect"  gravity-assists  for solar-orbit and interplanetary missions.  Its gravity has already assisted at least four missions!

Volcanoes    are constantly re-shaping Venus's surface!  So it actually has relatively few visible impact craters!

While it is harder for planets closer to the Sun to hold on to moons, Venus is at an ad- equate distance theoretically to do so.  Why Venus has no moons is one of the planet's great mysteries.

VENUS INTERACTIVES

QUICK ACCESS LIST

Note: some links are echoed elsewhere on this page and may include descriptive text.

View Venus in 3-D:  zoom and scroll this great interactive from SketchFab.

Links to interactive features that show Venus's orbit in 3-D can be found on our  Solar System page

NASA's Overview of Venus

From UNL, this interactive shows  How Venus Exhibits Phases  as it and Earth orbit the Sun.

View Venus's configurations relative to the other planets with this awesome  Planetary Configurations: Simulator.

NASA's Venus Trek

Compare Venus to "__" 3-D


SKYMARVELS™
VIDEOS FEATURING VENUS

Moon's Occultation of Venus 2010 May 16

Moon's Occultation of Venus 2010 Sep 11

 

The Solar System Barycenter

Inferior Planet Phases

Stunning Fields of View 002

Have You Ever . . . ?

"celestia4all" Site Preview