Search results
4 days ago · Viewed through a telescope, Venus presents a brilliant yellow-white, essentially featureless face to the observer. Its obscured appearance results from the surface of the planet being hidden from sight by a continuous and permanent cover of clouds. Features in the clouds are difficult to see in visible light.
- The Atmosphere
Venus’s upper atmosphere extends from the fringes of space...
- Surface Composition
Venus - Atmosphere, Craters, Volcanoes: A number of the...
- Spacecraft Exploration
Venus - Exploration, Atmosphere, Surface: The greatest...
- Impact Craters
Venus - Impact Craters: The Venusian surface has been...
- The Atmosphere
The surface of Venus is effectively isothermal; it retains a constant temperature not only between the two hemispheres but between the equator and the poles. Venus's minute axial tilt—less than 3°, compared to 23° on Earth—also minimises seasonal temperature variation.
Key Venus Facts. Distance from the Sun: 108.2 million km (67.2 million mi) Diameter: 12,104 km (7,521 miles) – just under 95% the diameter of Earth. Equatorial Circumference: 38,025 km (23,628 mi) Average Surface Temperature: 462°C (864°F) Day Length (Venusian Day): 243 Earth days. Year Length (Orbital Period): 225 Earth days.
Venus - Atmosphere, Orbit, Surface: Since Galileo’s discovery of Venus’s phases, the planet has been studied in detail, using Earth-based telescopes, radar, and other instruments.
Above the core and below the crust lies Venus’s mantle, making up the bulk of the planet’s volume. Despite the high surface temperatures, temperatures within the mantle are likely similar to those in Earth’s mantle.
Global topographic map of Venus, with all probe landings marked (red: returned images; with additional black dot: analyzed samples). There have been 46 (including gravity-assist flybys) space missions to the planet Venus. Missions to Venus constitute part of the exploration of Venus.
Akatsuki was planned to be put into a near equatorial (inclination 172 degrees) 30 hour Venus orbit with an apoapsis of about 79 000 km and a very low periapsis, approximately 300 km above the surface on its original pass.
