Venus

48 Pages·2001·6.613 MB·English

by  Giles Sparrow

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LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sparrow, Giles.
Venus/GilesSparrow.
p. cm. -- (Exploring thesolarsystem)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN 1-57572-393-X
1. Venus(Planet)—Juvenileliterature. [1. Venus (Planet)] I. Title.
QB621 .S672001
523.42-dc21
00-010444
Below: Theplanetsofthesolarsystem, shown in orderfrom theSun:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
CONTENTS
Where Is Venus? 6 How Did Venus Get so Hot? ... 24
First View 8 Myths and Legends 26
Getting Closer 9 Venus Before Space Probes ... 28
Through the Clouds 10 Early Probes 30
Lava Land 12 Mapping from Space 32
Plains and Craters 14 Lessons from Venus 34
What's Inside Venus? 16 Could Humans Live There? .... 35
How Venus Formed 18 Greening Venus 36
Unidentical Twins 20 Glossary 37
A Day on Venus 21 More Books to Read 38
Atmosphere and Climate 22 Index 39
Some words are shown in bold, like this.
You can findout what theymean bylooking in the glossary.
Where Venus?
Is
Venus is the brightest object in the night
sky, after the Moon. It can be bright Getting to Venus
enough to cast shadows on Earth, and you The time it takes to reach Venus depends
can sometimes see it during the day if you on yourmethodoftransportation, and the
know where to look. Venus is the second positions of Venus andEarth in theirorbits
planet from the Sun and Earth is the third. when you set off.
Because Venus is closer to the Sun than
Earth, it always appears near the Sun in the Distance from Earth to Venus
sky. The best times to see Venus are just Closest 26 million miles
after sunset or just before sunrise. (42 million km)
Furthest 160 million miles
In some ways Venus is like Earth's twin. (257 million km)
It is the closest planet to us and is only By carat 70 milesperhour
slightly smaller than Earth. Venus and (113 km perhour)
Earth are both made of rock, and both Closest 42years
planets have a thick, cloudy atmosphere. Furthest 260years
Like all the planets in the solar system, Byrocketat 7 milespersecond
Venus travels around the Sun along a (11 km persecond)
path called an orbit, and the time it takes Closest 43 days
to make one orbit is the length of its year. Furthest 265 days
While Earth orbits the Sun in 365 days,
Venus takes just 225 days. Time forradio signals to reach
Venus (at the speed oflight)
Venus stays about 67 million miles Closest 2 min. 20sec.
(108 million kilometers) from the Sun Furthest 14 min. 20 sec.
throughout its orbit, but its distance
from Earth is always changing.
Distance from the Sun
jfW
The diagramshowshowfarthe <? ^
planetsare from theSun. Venus
is one ofthe innerplanets,
along with Earth. Although it
looks close to us on thisscale it 7,000 (1,609)
is manymillions ofmilesaway. Distance in millions ofmiles (km)