Venus

Venus is the second planet from sunlight. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. As the thing in the night sky after the Moon, Venus may be, on occasion, visible to the naked eye in broad daylight and can cast shadows. Venus lies within Earth's orbit, and never appears to venture either setting in the west just after dusk or rising in the east a bit before sunrise. Venus orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days. Having a rotation period of 243 Earth days, it takes longer to rotate about its axis than any other planet in the Solar System and does so in the opposite direction to all but Uranus (meaning that the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east). Venus does not have any moons, a distinction it shares only with Mercury among planets in the Solar System.Venus is a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's"sister planet" because of their similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun, and bulk composition. It is different from Earth in different respects. It's the atmosphere of the four planets, consisting of over 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth, or roughly the pressure found 900 m (3,000 feet ) underwater on Earth. Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System, with a mean surface temperature of 735 K (462 °C; 863 °F), even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in light.

It might have had water oceans before, as the temperature rose because of a runaway greenhouse effect but these could have vaporized. The water has photodissociated, and the hydrogen that is free has been swept into space by the solar wind due to the lack of a planetary magnetic field. Venus's surface is a sterile desertscape interspersed with slab-like rocks and is periodically resurfaced by volcanism. Venus has been a significant fixture in human civilization for as long as records have existed. It has been made sacred to gods of many cultures, and has been a inspiration for writers and poets as the morning star and evening star. Venus was the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky, as early as the second millennium BC.As the planet with the nearest approach to Earth, Venus has been a prime target for early interplanetary exploration. It was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft (Mariner 2 in 1962), and also the first to be successfully landed on (by Venera 7 in 1970). The thick clouds of venus render observation of its surface impossible in visible light, and the detailed maps did not emerge before the Magellan orbiter's coming in 1991. Plans have been proposed for more complex missions or rovers, but the hostile surface conditions of Venus hinder them. In January 2020, astronomers reported evidence that suggests that Venus is volcanically active.

Source: Wikipedia