Venus - The sister of the Earth
Venus is the second nearest planet to the Sun and with its distance of one hundred milions of km is the nearest
planet to the Earth (the Earth - Venus is forty milions of km). But this is not the
only similarity . Venus has for example similarly long years (225 and 3 days, the Earth 365
and 1 days), they have the same equatorial radius (Venus 12100 km - Earth 12756 km) or
resembling density (Venus:5 200 kg/m3, Earth:5525 kg/m3). Moreover Venus arose
at the same time as the Earth as a result of thickenind of the same nebula of which the blue planet is made
|
Venus |
Earth |
Average distance from the Sun |
0,723 AU, 108,2 mil. of km |
1 AU, 149,6 mil. of km |
O_period |
224 3/4 days |
365 1/4 day |
Circular period |
243 days |
23h 56min |
Equatorial radius |
12 100 km |
12 756 km |
Mass |
4,83 x 1024 kg |
5,97 x 1024 kg |
Capacity |
0,88 of volume of the Earth |
---------------- |
Density |
5200 kg/m3 |
5520 kg/m3 |
Escape velocity |
10,3 km/s |
11,2 km/s |
Therefore it is not only the nearness and similar physical values why astronomers call Venus a sister of the Earth. Unfortunately, there are not as many similarities with the Earth, to arise life there.Venus does not have any oceans,
moreover, there is a very thick atmosphere, that mostly consists of CO2 and in the atmosphere there are also some
drops of H2SO4. The next really important reason, why it is not possibble to live on Venus is a fact, that Venus
has 92x bigger preasure of atmosphere in zero meters.
If you are asking why is Venus called Venus, the response is very simple. Venus is a name of the ancient
Roman's goddess of love and beauty (originally it was a name of a goddess of spring and awaking nature), who was
called Aphrodita in Greece. This planet was also observed by ancient Greek's, who called it "morning star"
or "evening star". As Venus is the most shining point in evening sky (after the Moon), thanks to this feature it received
its name, which possibly makes it the most poetic planet of the Solar system.