Venus is closer to Earth than Mercury, but that doesn't mean it's a good place to live. Believe it or not, Venus is hotter than Mercury!
People once thought that Venus, the second closest star to Earth, was the sister star of Earth. This is because it is relatively close, but it is almost the same size as Earth. But other than that, they have little in common. Venus' atmosphere is filled with thick clouds, making its surface invisible. The clouds play a role in trapping heat, so it would be easy to imagine a temperature rise when windows are tightly closed without an air conditioner or fan in a sunny room. So the distance to the sun is twice as far as Mercury is, but the temperature is much higher. Venus has a huge volcano on its surface, and a wide plain formed after a lot of lava flows and cools.
Venus rotates very slowly, so it lasts more than a year. This means that it takes one rotation axis to revolve around the sun longer than one revolution around the sun. And unusually, unlike other stars that rotate counterclockwise, Venus rotates clockwise. Astronomers estimate that Venus was probably upside down millions of years ago after colliding with a ball of metal or rock floating in space.
Venus is the brightest-looking star from Earth. (This is because clouds reflect a lot of sunlight.) It is also easy to observe Venus after sunset or just before sunrise because its orbit is close to the sun. That's why we sometimes call it an evening star, or a dawn star.
Once upon a time, astronomers thought that Venus' bright light had special beauty. That's why they named it Venus after Venus, the goddess of love. Astronomers also named almost all objects that can be found on Venus' surface a woman. Volcanoes were named after Sapo, the great Greek poet, and some areas were named Phoebe, the Greek goddess.
Characteristics of Venus
Diameter: 12,112km
Length of day (bicycle cycle): 243 days
Length of one year (common cycle): 225 days
Satellite: None
Surface temperature: 470℃