Venus

  • Apart from the moon, Venus is the brightest object in our night sky
  • The atmosphere of planet Venus is poisonous! It has yellow clouds that contain toxic gasses and sulphuric acid that would burn our skin.
  • The atmosphere mainly consists of carbon dioxide and has 90 times more atmospheric pressure than Earth.
  • If you were to visit Venus your body would be suffocated, burnt and crushed to death by the atmosphere!
  • Venus has a diameter of 12,104 km
  • A year on Venus takes 225 Earth days.
  • A day on the surface of Venus (solar day) would appear to take 117 Earth days.
  • Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets.
    This means that Venus is rotating in the opposite direction to the Sun, this is also known as a retrograde rotation. One possible reason for this might be a collision with an asteroid or other object.
  • Venus is often called the Earth’s sister planet.