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Mark Fisher
1999-2012

Venus
The Evening Star, The Morning Star

Proper Name
Venus

Sidereal Period
224.70 days

Mean Distance from the Sun
108.2 million km
0.72 AU

Sidereal Day
243 days, 0 hours, 32 minutes

Diameter
12,103 km

Mean Surface Temperature
464°C

Moons
None

For Venus' current position and visibility, see the Planet Wheel

A beautiful and brilliant sight in the evening or morning sky, Venus is actually an inhospitable world, with 'rain' composed of sulphuric acid, and a surface temperature of more than 400°C.

A pleasant day on Venus: the landscape bakes in temperatures hot enough to melt tin. Nearby, stirred by the wind,a lake of sulphuric acid froths.

Because Venus' orbit is closer to the Sun than the Earth's, it never appears far from the Sun in the Earth's sky. This effect means that the brilliant planet is most often seen in the hours before dawn, or after sunset, giving it the names of Morning and Evening Star.

Venus' diameter of 12,070km makes it the second largest of the terrestrial planets, at around 95% the size of Earth. Surface map courtesy Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Copyright (c) California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. All rights reserved.

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