02 Venus - Earth`s Sister planet

Download Report

Transcript 02 Venus - Earth`s Sister planet

Venus
Earth’s “sister planet”
Venus:
Second
closest
planet and
the 6th
largest
(12,103 km)
Avg. Dist. from sun: .72
AU (108,200,000km)
nearly perfectly circular
Orbit Period : 225 ED
Rotaion Period: 243 ED
RETROGRADE!!!!!!
Mass: 4.869 x 1024 kg
Known since prehistoric times.
Also known as the morning and
evening stars
In Greek mythology, Venus was the
goddess of love and beauty. This was
most likely due to Venus being the
brightest object (other than the sun and
the moon) in the sky.
Core
Mantle
Crust
Venus has been visited by 20+ spacecraft!
Some the most important are:
Mariner 2(the first in 1962), PioneerVenus,
Venera 7(the first craft to land on another
planet), Vanera 9(first to send back photos
of the surface), Magellan(produced detailed
maps)
Venus has a VERY DENSE atmosphere!
Pictures are difficult to get (without special
equipment) It is actually 90 times that of the
E…..if you could land there, it would be like
being nearly a mile under water!
Once you land, you’re looking at a deadly
atmosphere….the pressure + nearly nothing
but CO2, except for the sulfuric acid clouds.
Dense atmosphere
AND strong winds
(350 kph)
The atmosphere acts like a green house,
holding in the heat received from the sun.
This makes it a HOT planet…..127 C to
470 C (that’s hot enough to melt lead)
Sometimes called earth’s sister planet due
to its similar size, density, composition and
the overall lack of craters.
EARTH?
NO WAY!!!
Much of Venus is covered by lava flows and
“pancake volcanoes”