Venus

    Venus is called the jewel of the sky because it is considered to be the third brightest object in the solar system (the sun brightest and the moon second). It has no oceans and is surrounded by a heavy atmosphere which is composed out of mostly carbon dioxide and have no water vapor. Its clouds are made of sulfuric acid droplets. Venus has a surface temperature of 482 degrees Celsius(900 degrees F). At its surface, the atmospheric pressure is 92 times of Earth's at sea level. The reason Venus is so hot is that the sun passes right through it and the heat is trapped by the heavy atmosphere. Venus is even hotter than Mercury. A day in Venus is like being 243 days in Earth, a year in Venus is 225 days longer than a year in Earth. 

    Numerous impact craters are found scattered all over the surface of this planet. There are no small craters due to the heavy atmosphere. But there is a exception. That is when large meteoroids crash in front of the large craters creating crater clusters. There are also lava flows that flooded low lands and created vast plains. These lava flows extends over hundreds of kilometers. One of them are even almost 7,000 kilometers. At least 85% of Venus is covered with volcano rocks. There are giant calderas found in Venus. Some are more than 100 kilometers in diameter. But some are only a few kilometers in diameter. 

    Unique features in Venus include coronae and arachnoids. Coronae are large circular to oval features, encircled with cliffs. They are hundreds of kilometers across. Arachnoids may have been caused by molten rock seeping into surface fractures. Venus does not have any moons. Venus is known by ancient astronomers as the morning star and the evening star and early astronomers thought Venus as two separate bodies. Astronomers refer Venus as Earth's sister. That's because they are both similar in mass, density, and volume. They both form at the same time and condense out of the same nebula.

Mercury         Venus         Earth         Mars         Jupiter         Saturn         Uranus         Neptune         Pluto