Venus: The Planet of Love

Aha! The Venus! The second planet of our solar system! Why is the Venus known as the Planet Of Love? And why is Venus also called the Earth's twin? Let's explore answers to these questions and see a lot of interesting facts as well. So lets get started 

The planet Venus is named after the Roman Godess of Love and Beauty. Now I think you have understood why I am telling Venus as the planet of love. But why is Venus named after the godess of love and Beauty? The reason behind was the shinning appearance if Venus in the sky. We can even see Venus by our naked eyes, it can be seen before the sunrise and after the sunset. Therefore, it is also called Morning and Evening Star respectively. Well it is not a star then also it is called so because it shines like a star in the sky. You will be amazed to know that Greek and Roman people thought Venus as two planets not one. Greek people said the morning appearing Venus, Phosphorus and the evening appearing Venus, Hosperus. Similarly Roman people said the morning appearing Venus, Lucifer and the evening appearing Venus, Vesper.

This planet was also discovered by Galileo Galilei for the first time. He was also the first person to see phases of Venus in December 1610. Just see once, what is phases of Venus? The phases are the variations of lighting seen from on the planet surface. It is somewhat similar to the phases of Moon, that we can see from Earth. 

 The rotation of Venus is 243 days and revolution is 225 days therefore, one day of Venus is equal to 243 Earth days and one year of Venus is equal to 225 Earth days. And have you observed that one day on Venus is more than one year on Venus. The radius of Venus is 6,051.8 km and is the third smallest planet in the Solar system. It is slightly smaller than Earth. The surface of Venus contains mountains, valleys and dangerous volcanoes. This is also a Terrestrial planet like Earth. Because of all these similarities from Earth, Venus is also called the twin and sister of of Earth. But the difference between these two planets is that, Venus rotates counter clockwise in its axis that means, the sun rises in west and sets in east on Venus.

Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar system. In my previous post, I had told you that being nearest to Sun Mercury is not the hottest planet, but Venus is the hottest planet being the second nearest planet to Sun. Now you might be thinking why is it so? The reason behind is a thick layer of Atmosphere in Venus. As the sunlight enters the surface of Venus, some of it gets reflected and the sunlight is trapped by the layer of atmosphere leading to the rise in temperature of this planet. The rise in temperature causes Global Warming. The temperature rises to 475 degrees Celsius.

Because of the heat in Venus it is difficult for human beings to reach there but, it doesn't mean that we haven't reached there. So, the first spacecraft in Venus was sent by Russia in December 1961 named Venera 1 but due to the lose of connection the mission was cancelled. The second spacecraft, Mariner 1 was sent by NASA on 22 July 1962 and  this was unable to reach the orbit of Venus. The next spacecraft was Mariner 2, sent by NASA and, this spacecraft was successful to reach the orbit and it gave many data about Venus. After this, on 16 November 1965 Venera 3 was sent by Soviet Union and this was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of Venus. After all these missions many space crafts were sent to Venus.

Mariner 2

Venera 3