Venus Research Paper

Venus is the second planet from the sun in our solar system, and the second brightest object in the Earth’s sky after the moon. From Earth, Venus can be seen as a bright star in the morning and evening skies. In fact, it is up to 15 times brighter than the brightest star, Sirius. Venus is also referred to as Earth’s sister planet due to their similar size, mass, and composition. Other than being neighboring planets, Venus’s diameter is 12,104 km, while Earth is 12,756 km. Earth’s size is approximately 5% larger than of Venus’. As with their mass, Earth weighs approximately 19% more than Venus. Although both planets share similar metal cores made up of mantle, Venus is knows as “Earth’s evil twin.” Venus has a thick atmosphere and extreme …show more content…
Many giant rocks pounded the surfaces of newly formed planets. It is believed that Venus’ surface was completely redone by volcanoes. The surface of Venus is highly dominated by volcanic features, in fact, it contains more volcanoes than any other planet it the Solar System. Its surface is 90% basalt, and about 65% of the planet contains volcanic lava plains, indicating that volcanism played a major role in reshaping the surface. Venus has several lowlands along with two large continents. Ishtar Terra, approximately the size of Australia, lies to the north while Africa-sizedw Aphrodite Terra lies in the south of the equator. Unlike on Earth, these continents weren’t formed by plate tectonics, instead they make up the difficult period of Venus with canyons, trenches, and mountains. The highest mountain in Venus, Maxwell Montes, is more than 7 miles high, higher than Mount …show more content…
Although Venus is the second closest planet from the Sun, it is hotter than Mercury. Firstly, with an atmospheric density of approximately 480° C. This easily makes Venus’ surface the hottest of any planet’s in the solar system. The atmosphere of Venus is very hot and thick and is made up almost completely of Carbon Dioxide. In fact, it contains 96% of Carbon Dioxide, 3.5% of Nitrogen, and less than 1% of Argon, sulfur dioxide and water vapor. Because it has a large amount of Carbon Dioxide, it causes a greenhouse effect that heats the planet extremely hot. If we were to be on the surface of the planet, the air above would be about 90 times heavier than the Earth's atmosphere. In addition to warming the planet, Venus’ thick, heavy clouds of sulfuric acid that shield it, preventing visible observations of the surface and protecting it from destruction of large meteorites. These clouds block our view to the surface of Venus, and reflect about 75% of the sunlight that falls on them. Ultimately, Venus does not have many craters, instead it has a smooth surface because meteors burn up in its thick atmosphere, while others have been covered by lava

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