Venus
Venus from Galileo
© NASA
It is the brightest object in the night sky other than the Moon.
The first spacecraft to visit Venus was Mariner 2 in 1962, but more than 20 have been in total so far.
The planet is covered in very thick cloud. The surface can only be seen using Radar.
The temperature at the surface is very high (up to 460 °C). This is because it has a very strong Greenhouse Effect.
It has no satellites.
| Facts and Figures | |
| Orbit | 108,200,000 km from the Sun or 0.72 AU |
| Radius | 6,052 km |
| Mass | 4.87 x 1024 kg or 0.815 Earths |
| Length of Year | 225 Earth days |
| Length of Day | 117 Earth days |
| Surface Gravity | 0.91 g |
| Surface Temperature | about 460 °C |
