Jan 14, 2025 · Venus is the second planet from the Sun. That means Mercury and Earth are Venus's neighboring planets. Quick History. Venus has been known since ancient times because it can be seen easily without a telescope. Venus has been visited by several spacecraft: Mariner 2, Mariner 5, Mariner 10, Pioneer Venus 1, Pioneer Venus 2, and an orbiter called ...

Venus is often called the Earth’s sister planet. The Earth and Venus are very similar in size with only a 638 km difference in diameter and Venus having 81.5% of the Earth’s mass. Both also have a central core, a molten mantle and a crust. The same side of Venus always faces the Earth when at their closest.

6 days ago · When viewed through a telescope, Venus presents a brilliant yellow-white and a featureless face to the observer. Its obscured appearance results from the surface being hidden from sight by a continuous and permanent cover of clouds that are difficult to view in visible light.

Dec 21, 2024 · These landers, arriving on Venus in March 1982, transmitted the first—and so far the only—color panoramas of the planet’s surface. The images revealed a harsh, golden-hued world shaped by volcanic activity and strewn with dark, basaltic rocks.

Apr 28, 2021 · In 2012, NASA's Magellan spacecraft took a radar image of the cratered face of Venus. But a camera hasn't landed on the planet since the 1980s. NASA/JPL

Jan 22, 2025 · Venus is similar in structure and size to Earth, and is sometimes called Earth’s evil twin. Its thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar system with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead.

Feb 14, 2024 · Venus is the only oddball that pirouettes clockwise. Scientists discovered Venus’ retrograde rotation after pelting the planet with ground-based, cloud-penetrating radar waves in the 1960s....

May 2, 2020 · Are the stars aligning to form a celestial “smiley face” that will look down on a troubled Earth? No, they’re not. For some reason a story about Venus, Jupiter and a crescent Moon aligning to...

Jan 16, 2025 · Scientists think it's possible that life cells from Earth could've been transferred to Venus, thanks to asteroid impacts over the last few billion years.

Venus is a landscape of valleys and high mountains dotted with thousands of volcanoes. Its surface features – most named for both real and mythical women – include Ishtar Terra, a rocky, highland area around the size of Australia near the north pole, and an even larger, South-America-sized region called Aphrodite Terra that stretches across ...