Venus

"Don't tell me sky's the limit when there's footprints on the moon."

- Unknown

Venus is the second inner planet from the sun and is named after the Romance goddess of love since it shone the brightest among all the planets to ancient astronomers. Earth and Venus are called twin planets because of their similar size in mass, density, composition, and gravity. Venus's interior is made up of a metallic iron core (6000 km wide), molten rocky mantle(3000 km), and basalt crust (10-20 km). It is the hottest planet in our solar system since it has a dense atmosphere that traps heat in a similar version of Earth's greenhouse effect. Its atmosphere consist of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid. Temperature on Venus reach about 880 degrees fahrenheit.

The first ever transits of Venus were observed in 1631 and 1639. About 20 spacecrafts such as Venera(Soviet Union), and Mariner (US) have observed Venus. NASA's Magellan generated maps of about 98% of the Venus's surface. Japan's Akatsuki was launched in 2010 and studied Venus from its orbit. In 2019, NASA and Russian Academy Sciences' Space Research Institute discussed on collaborating on the Venera-D mission which would include an orbiter and a lander that would be launched in 2026.

Fun Facts:

1. It takes Venus longer to rotate on its axis once than to complete one orbit of the Sun.

2. Venus spins clockwise on its axis.

3. Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky.

4. Atmospheric pressure ion Venus is 92 times greater than the Earth's.

5. Venus has the most volcanos than any other planet in the solar system.

Here's a video by NASA: