Venus
From Wikiversity
As known as a common fact, Venus is the second planet in terms of proximity towards the Sun. Venus is also known as the Morning or the Evening star due to the fact that it is the brightest right before sunrise or a little after sunset. Venus is also known as the Earth's 'sister planet' because of its diameter, size, and bulk composition as it is nearly same as the earth's. Venus shines very well in night sky as its atmosphere is very thick and it reflects sunlight very brightly. Venus is also the hottest planet in our solar system. This is also because of its atmosphere. Its atmosphere mainly consists of sulphuric acid and carbon dioxide (CO2) that traps heat of the Sun and do not let it go back. Venus has no moons. It has a surface temperature of about 450℃~470℃ . Venus is the only planet named after a female figure. Statistics and other important informations about Venus are given here:
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[edit] Some information about the planet
- Day (time taken to spin round its orbit): 243 Earth days
- Year (time taken to cover its orbit): 224.7 Earth days
- Diameter (at equator) : 12,102 km
- Temperature: 450℃~470℃.
- Distance from Sun: 107 million km~109 million km
- Spacecraft from earth: Magellan orbiter (which reached Venus in 1980s)
[edit] Orbital characteristics
- Aphelion: 108,942,109 km (0.72823128 AU)
- Perihelion: 107,476,259 km (0.71843270 AU)
- Semi-major axis: 108,208,930 km (0.723332 AU)
- Eccentricity: 0.0068
- Orbital period: 224.70069 day (0.6151970 yr)
- Synodic period: 583.92 days
- Avg. orbital speed: 35.02 km/s
- Inclination: 3.39471° (3.86° to Sun's equator)
- Longitude of ascending node: 76.67069°
- Argument of perihelion: 54.85229°
- Satellites: None
[edit] Physical characteristics
- Mean radius: 6051.8 ± 1.0 km (0.9499 Earths)
- Flattening: < 0.0002
- Surface area: 4.60×108 km² (0.902 Earths)
- Volume: 9.38×1011 km³ (0.857 Earths)
- Mass: 4.8685×1024 kg (0.815 Earths)
- Mean density: 5.204 g/cm³
- Equatorial surface gravity: 8.87 m/s2 (0.904 g)
- Escape velocity: 10.46 km/s
- Sidereal rotation period: −243.0185 day
- Rotation velocity at equator: 6.52 km/h
- Axial tilt: 177.36°
- Right ascension of North pole: 18 hours, 11 minutes, 2 seconds (272.76°)
- Declination of North pole: 67.16°
- Albedo: 0.65
- Surface temp.:
Kelvin: 735K Celsius: 461.85℃
- Apparent magnitude: up to -4.6
- Angular diameter: 9.7" — 66.0"
- Adjectives: Venusian or (rarely) Cytherean
[edit] Atmosphere
- Surface pressure: 9.3 MPa
- Composition:
- ≈ 96.5% Carbon dioxide
- ≈ 3.5% Nitrogen
- 0.015% Sulphur dioxide
- 0.007% Argon
- 0.002% Water vapor
- 0.0017% Carbon monoxide
- 0.0012% Helium
- 0.0007% Neon
- Trace Carbonyl sulfide
- Trace Hydrogen chloride
- Trace Hydrogen fluoride
