Good afternoon, everyone! Today I shall be talking about the closest planet to our own - in distance, but not in reality… it's Venus!
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| Thanks to Wikipedia for this picture - and admittedly the information here too. At least it's in my own words? |
Venus… the closest thing our Solar System has to hell. Let's take a look at it:
Facts about Venus
Average temperature: 462 °C
Average distance from Sun: 108,939,000 km
Year length: 224.7 Earth days (1.92 Venus days)
Solar day length: 116.75 Earth days
Surface area: 460,230,000 km2 (90.2% of Earth's)
Gravity: 8.9 m/s2
Mass: 4.9 septillion kg (82% of Earth's)
Surface pressure: 92 megapascals (9200% of Earth's!)
Venus is often called Earth's twin. Whilst it and our planet are similar in size, weight and composition, nothing else is remotely similar! It is a living hell of a world - its average temperature is hot enough to melt lead.
The island of Hawaii is a volcanic complex (it has five volcanoes) about 100 km across. Venus, on the other hand, has one hundred and sixty-seven individual volcanoes of that size!
Interestingly, Venus has an externally produced magnetic field - its is produced by an interaction between its ionosphere (the electrically charged part of the atmosphere) and the solar wind (electrically charged particles emanating from the Sun).
It is believed that Venus might have had a moon - but that was before its spin was reversed. The reversal of Venus' spin would have led this moon to begin to spiral inwards before colliding with Venus' surface and ceasing to exist. But remember - it's only a hypothesis, so don't take it as absolute truth yet.
Another theory is that there might be life on Venus. Of course, this life would not be on the hellish surface, but rather in the upper atmosphere, where the temperature only ever climbs to about 80 °C and there's plentiful amounts of sulphuric acid.
It may well seem odd that I mentioned sulphuric acid as a benefit - but the fact is that early life on Earth was completely confined to acid pools - they needed sulphate to respire, and the acid provided that.
So, in conclusion, Venus is a moonless hell with hundreds of volcanoes the size of Hawaii that might have had a moon in the past and could also support thermoacidophilic (heat and acid-loving) micro-organisms in its upper atmosphere. …Huh.
I'll see you all next week, anyway, so have a good next week! Bye for now!
Venus is often called Earth's twin. Whilst it and our planet are similar in size, weight and composition, nothing else is remotely similar! It is a living hell of a world - its average temperature is hot enough to melt lead.
The island of Hawaii is a volcanic complex (it has five volcanoes) about 100 km across. Venus, on the other hand, has one hundred and sixty-seven individual volcanoes of that size!
Interestingly, Venus has an externally produced magnetic field - its is produced by an interaction between its ionosphere (the electrically charged part of the atmosphere) and the solar wind (electrically charged particles emanating from the Sun).
It is believed that Venus might have had a moon - but that was before its spin was reversed. The reversal of Venus' spin would have led this moon to begin to spiral inwards before colliding with Venus' surface and ceasing to exist. But remember - it's only a hypothesis, so don't take it as absolute truth yet.
Another theory is that there might be life on Venus. Of course, this life would not be on the hellish surface, but rather in the upper atmosphere, where the temperature only ever climbs to about 80 °C and there's plentiful amounts of sulphuric acid.
It may well seem odd that I mentioned sulphuric acid as a benefit - but the fact is that early life on Earth was completely confined to acid pools - they needed sulphate to respire, and the acid provided that.
So, in conclusion, Venus is a moonless hell with hundreds of volcanoes the size of Hawaii that might have had a moon in the past and could also support thermoacidophilic (heat and acid-loving) micro-organisms in its upper atmosphere. …Huh.
I'll see you all next week, anyway, so have a good next week! Bye for now!