Henry's Report on VENUS

Venus

by
Henry K.
June 11, 2009

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Venus

My report is on Venus, the second planet from the Sun. Venus is named after the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Venus does not have any moons in its orbit, and has the same acid that's in car batteries in it's atmosphere (which is sulfuric acid).

The swirling clouds of Venus are so thick sunlight cannot go directly through them to reach the surface. The surface of Venus is rocky. The lava flow from erupting volcanoes make low plains.

Speaking of volcanoes and lava, the temperatures on Venus are hot enough to melt lead! A scorching 900 degrees Fahrenheit! That's hot! The atmosphere is so thick and dense that the 'greenhouse' effect makes it impossible for heat to escape. It can get in though!

Venus shines brightly in the East before sunrise, and in the West after sunset. We can see Venus easily because it is the closest planet to Earth (23.7 million miles). Also, the thick clouds I mentioned earlier reflect the sunlight, making it bright from Earth. By the way, Venus is pretty close to the Sun too (67.2 million miles) and in space distance, that's pretty close!

Venus is roughly the same size as Earth, and astronomers think it could have been born at the same time.

Venus' day is longer than it's year. One full rotation of the Earth takes 24 hours, or 1 day. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to rotate once. If 1 Earth day is equal to 24 hours, 1 Venus day is equal to 5,832 Earth hours!




One orbit around the Sun on Earth takes 365 Earth days, but one orbit around the Sun for Venus takes just 225 Earth days. Venus orbits around the Sun in the opposite direction of the other planets in the Solar System.

Venus cannot support any life. I think that it might've been able to have water, but then it all boiled away from the intense temperatures.

Space probes only last a couple of hours on Venus before melting away. If you were to land a manned mission on Venus and you walked out of the spacecraft, you would literally turn as flat as a pancake and look like a pancake in a pool of blood! No kidding!

The former Soviet union launched several spacecraft to either fly by or land on Venus in the 60's, 70's and 80's. That's around hippie time! There have been many probes sent to Venus and NASA's Magellan spacecraft has been orbiting Venus since 1990. Japan is preparing a Climate Orbiter that will be launched in 2010. Japan's "Climate-C" orbiter will carry five cameras and it's mission should last at least 2 years!

And that ends my report.

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SOURCES

"Guide to Space" by Peter Bond.
DK PUBLISHING


"The Martian Chronicals", blog by Ryan Anderson

http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/agu-day-2-venus/


"Mercury and Venus" by World Book's Solar System & Space Exploration Library.
WORLD BOOK, INC.


hk/slk