Taking a Look at the Planet Venus

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The planet Venus is an uninhabited planet, 109 million kilometers from the sun making it the second closest planet (“Planet Venus Facts”). Being also the sixth largest planet in our Solar System it measures 12,100 km in diameter, similar to that of Earth (“Planet Venus Facts”). Because of their similarities in size Earth and Venus are often called “twins” (Feather and Zike 77). Venus was first discovered by ancient astronomers because of its visibility to the naked eye, but they were unable to identify what it was (Cain). Because this was before recorded history, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly who first saw it in the sky (Cain). In 1610 it was confirmed by Galileo that Venus was, in fact, a planet, based on the grounds that it also experienced phases, just like our own moon (Cain).
Even though Earth and Venus are a similar size, the resemblances stop there. Because Venus is so much closer to the sun, its revolution takes only about 225 Earth days (“How long does it take Venus to go around the Sun?”), moving at 35 kilometers per second (“Planet Venus Facts”). However its rotation takes 243 Earth days, making a day longer than a year (“Planet Venus Facts”)! Other than Uranus, Venus is the only planet to rotate from East to West (“Planet Venus Facts”).
Venus’s atmosphere is extremely dense (Feather and Zike 77). Many of the clouds surrounding the small planet are composed mainly of sulfuric acid (“Planet Venus facts”). The air itself is 96% carbon dioxide and oxygen has not been detected and the pressure on the surface is 92 times that of Earth’s atmosphere (Coffey, “Atmosphere of Venus”). Because of all of this, Venus is greatly influenced by the greenhouse effect causing a small temperature variance of 450°C to 475°C all...

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