General Information
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is also the sixth largest.
It named after Venus who was the goddess of love and beauty.
It was probably named this because it was the brightest of the planets known
in ancient times.
Basic Facts
- Distance from Sun: 108,200,000 km or .72 AU
- Mass: 4.869 e24 kg or .815 Earth
- Radius: 6052 km or .95 Earth
- Surface Gravity: 8.87 (m/s^2) or .91 Earth
- Escape Velocity: 10.36 (km/s) or .93 Earth
- Length of Day: 243 Earth days
- Length of year: 225 Earth days
Venus has a slow rotation as seen above. Basically a day on Venus lasts
longer than a year. There are also two other items of interest in reference
to Venus rotation. The first is that since its rotation is so slow Venus
does not have a magnetic field. Second is the fact the Venus has a retrogarde
rotation. What this means is that when one looks at the North Pole from
above the planet would spin clockwise. This is different from the Earth
which spins counter-clockwise.
Venus is often referred to as Earth's sister planet. This is a result of
the similarities between the two planets. They are roughly the same diameter
and they are very close in mass. Their gravity and escape velocity are also
very close.
Between the United States and the former USSR their have been over 20 missions
to Venus. The following is a brief summary of the United States missions
to Venus.
