The second planet from the Sun, Venus is the brightest luminary in the Solar System after the Sun and Moon. The planet's maximum magnitude is 4.4. When observing through a telescope, it is clearly visible that the planet changes its phases, just like the Moon. The almost circular orbit of Venus is inside the orbit of the Earth. The maximum angle of the planet's distance from our star reaches 48°, and in these positions Venus can be visible about 3 hours before sunrise or after sunset.
In some years, transits of the planet across the solar disk can be observed.
Venus rotates around its axis, inclined to the orbital plane by 2°, from west to east, that is, in the opposite direction compared to most planets.
The cloudy atmosphere of Venus consists mainly of high-density carbon dioxide, which makes it difficult to see the surface of the planet. Only with the help of radar measurements were scientists able to “see” the topography of the planet, covered with hundreds of thousands of mountains, gorges and volcanic craters. Some of the volcanoes reach a height of 3 km; their diameter is about 500 km. Some scientists believe that volcanic activity still exists on the planet. However, no confirmation of this has been found.
Due to the similarity of Venus and Earth, scientists assume that in ancient times it had oceans, like on our planet. However, they could completely evaporate due to the strong heating of the planet's surface.
The density of Venus's atmosphere is 1/14 that of water. Therefore, the pressure on the surface of the planet is very high - about 93 atmospheres. Calculations show that on Venus almost the entire atmosphere is involved in a single movement, forming a giant hurricane blowing at a speed of about 130 m/sec at the cloud top level.
The dense atmosphere of Venus extends to an altitude of 250 km. The surface temperature reaches almost 500 degrees Celsius due to the strong greenhouse effect.
In ancient Roman mythology, Venus is the goddess of love and beauty. In the myths of Ancient Greece, Venus is called Aphrodite.
Exploring Venus
Latin name: Venus
Symbol: goddess of love and beauty
Average radius: 6052 km (7th place)
Weight: 48.685 x 1023 kg (7th place)
Density: 5.204 g/cm3
Acceleration of St. drop: 8.87 m/s2
Period of revolution around the Sun: 225 Earth days
Orbital speed: 35.0 km/s
Length of day: 243 Earth days
Orbital diameter: 1.446 AU. e.
Orbital inclination: 3.39°
Magnetic field: no
Satellites: no
Atmosphere: carbon dioxide (96.5%)
More than 20 spacecraft have visited Venus and its environs, starting with Mariner 2 in 1962. Venera 9 was the first spacecraft to soft-land on the planet's surface in 1975. American craft Pioneer-Venus made it possible to obtain the first high-quality map of the planet's surface in 1978. Magellan, launched in 1989, was more successful than others. Using this device, it was possible to obtain detailed images of 98% of the planet's surface.
And finally, the Venus Express spacecraft, which was launched in October 2005, began operating in orbit around the planet in May 2006.
The phases of Venus were first discovered by G. Galilei and in 1610. The passage of Venus across the disk of the Sun on December 4, 1639, was first observed by the English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks (1619-1641).
In 1761, the next transit of Venus across the solar disk took place. It made it possible to clarify the distance from the Earth to the Sun using a method developed by the English astronomer E. Halley. However, this required observations of this phenomenon around the world.
In Russia, observations of Venus were organized by M. V. Lomonosov. He approached the Senate with a proposal, where he justified the need to equip an expedition for astronomical research in Siberia. While observing the “phenomenon of Venus on the Sun” on June 6, 1761, M.V. Lomonosov noticed that when Venus “touched” the disk of the Sun, the shape of the planet’s disk at the point of contact was bent. At the same time, a “hair-thin, light part of the sun” appeared, separating the celestial bodies. This phenomenon could only be explained by the refraction of solar rays in the planet’s atmosphere.
In 1990, during the flight of the Galileo spacecraft past Venus, the surface of the planet was photographed with an IR spectrometer. “Transparent windows” were discovered through which the surface of the planet is visible.
Venus is the second planet farthest from the Sun (the second planet in the Solar System).
Venus is a terrestrial planet and is named after the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus has no natural satellites. Has a dense atmosphere.
Venus has been known to people since ancient times.
Venus' neighbors are Mercury and Earth.
The structure of Venus is a matter of debate. The most probable is considered to be: an iron core with a mass of 25% of the mass of the planet, a mantle (extends 3,300 kilometers deep into the planet) and a crust 16 kilometers thick.
A significant part of the surface of Venus (90%) is covered with solidified basaltic lava. It contains vast hills, the largest of which are comparable in size to the earth's continents, mountains and tens of thousands of volcanoes. There are virtually no impact craters on Venus.
Venus has no magnetic field.
Venus is the third brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and Moon.
Orbit of Venus
The average distance from Venus to the Sun is just under 108 million kilometers (0.72 astronomical units).
Perihelion (orbital point closest to the Sun): 107.5 million kilometers (0.718 astronomical units).
Aphelion (the farthest point in the orbit from the Sun): 108.9 million kilometers (0.728 astronomical units).
The average speed of Venus's orbit is 35 kilometers per second.
The planet completes one revolution around the Sun in 224.7 Earth days.
The length of a day on Venus is 243 Earth days.
The distance from Venus to Earth varies from 38 to 261 million kilometers.
The direction of rotation of Venus is opposite to the direction of rotation of all (except Uranus) planets of the solar system.
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Venus in the Solar System
Venus is the second planet in the solar system, the average distance between it and the Sun isis 108.2 million kilometers. Its orbit is is located inside the Earth's orbit, so Venus, like and Mercury, is the inner planet.
The orbit of Venus is closer to a circle in shape thanorbits of other planets. Venus rotates aroundaround the Sun in 224.7 Earth days, moving at a speed of 35 kilometers per second. Venus may move closer to Earth during inferior conjunctions less than 40 million km - closer than any other majorshoy planets of the solar system. Synodic pe-period (from one lower connection to another) ra- there are 583.92 days, and five such periods fit almost exactly into eight earthly years. The best visibility conditions for Venus occur during the period elongation, when the angular distance of Venus from Sol- the temperature reaches 48 degrees; for an earthly observer, it never moves further away from our daylight star, so the planet is visible only after sunset (the “evening star”) or shortly before its rise (the “morning star”). Ancient astronomers at one time even assumed that these were two different celestial bodies, and gave them different names - Phosphorus and Lucifer.
Unusually proper rotation of Venus: long-the number of revolutions around the axis relative to the stars (sidereal day) exceeds the Venusian year and is equal toat 243.16 Earth days, and the direction of rotation is opposite to the rotation of most planets. Around its axis, Venus rotates in the opposite direction. rule - from east to west (or clockwise)ke, when viewed from the North Pole), and not from west to east, like the Earth and other planets, except for Uranus. The axis of rotation of Venus is almost perpendicularnormal to the orbital plane (the inclination of the equator to the orbital plane is about 2.6°, or 177.4°, taking into accountthat is, reverse rotation), so there is no change of seasons on the planet. One day there is similar to another, it hasis the same duration and, apparently,Mostly, the same weather. Due to the unusual combination directions and periods of rotation and circulation around the Sun there is a change of day and night on Ve- does not occur in almost 117 days, so day and night continue there 58.5 days each. The day that is usually compared to a year is the solar day, the synodic period of rotation. The synodic period is equal to: 1/(1/243 + 1/224.7) = 116.7 Earth days (the plus sign is taken taking into account the opposite direction of rotation). This is how long a sunny day lasts on Venus.
The uniformity of the weather increases strong greenhouse effect, creatinginduced by the Venusian atmosphere.
Venus is similar to our Earth in size and mass. The radius of Venus is 6052 km (near Earth - 6378 km). The mass of Venus is 0.815 that of the Earth, the average density of the planet is 5240 kg/m 3,acceleration of free fall on the equa- torus 8.76 m/s (89% of the earth's). Due to the slow rotation, the flattening effect the nuts and bolts of the planet from the poles absent.
After the Sun and Moon, Venus appearsbeing the brightest luminary in the earth's sky: its magnitude at maximum sometimes exceeds -4.5 tons, the planet often observed in the daytime sky by non-weapons with the naked eye, and under favorable conditions you can even observe the shadow of objects created by the light of Ve- ners (though in the conditions of modern civilization, it is quite difficult to find such conditions).
First look at Venus through a telescope
They hardly tried to study the planet not immediately after the invention of mankind your telescope. IN 1610 year Galileo Galileo first observed phase changes inVenus, i.e. change in its visible shapewe are from the disk to the narrow crescent. "Not windows-the treasured and hidden things have been read by me"—ta- what anagram was published by the great Galileo to reserve the rightchampionship of the discovery of phase change in Venice ry. The anagram contained the message: "The Mother of Love imitates the figures of the Qing- tia." This can be deciphered as follows: "the mother of love (Venus) is observed in various phases like the Moon (Qing- tii)". Was it not this discovery that confirmed the correctness of the heliocentric system? are we Copernicus?
Following the discovery of the Venusian phases, claims from other scientists for “discoveries” appeared, which, however, were not confirmed by anything. For example, Francesco Fontana from Naples in 1643 saw on Venus "mountains that raised- over several tens of kilometers." The dispute about the "Himalayas" on Venus subsequently tvii did not die out, and the most curious thing is that modern planetary scientists actually discovered high mountain ranges there. The thing is that the terminator, the border between day and night, on Venus appears as a broken line. Francesco Fontana believed that the unevenness of the terminator depends on the shadows cast by the relief. He naively applied to Venus the conclusions that Galilei once made in relation to the lunar terminator, where the brokenness of the action strictly connected with the lunar relief. Hence the absurd result, since the terminator line of Venus depends only on the unevenness of its cloud cover. Beginning with XVII centuries, astronomers have repeatedly tried to “see” Venus, but no one has been able to confidently find any detailed details on the surface of the planet. Because of dense clouds it represents- Xia homogeneous.
IN In 1761, Mikhailo Lomonosov observed the passage of a planet across the disk of the Sun. As a result of these observations, the discovery of the atmosphere of Venus was made, described in the article “The appearance of Venus on the Sun, observed at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences on May 26, 1761.” Watching the entry Venus on the disk of the Sun, Lomonosov for- noticed the clouding of the edge of the solar disk at the first contact: “...Waiting for Venus to enter the Sun... I finally saw that the solar edge of the expected entry had become unclear and somewhat blurred, but before it was very clear and equal everywhere... "Cog Yes, the disk of Venus is almost completely stared at the disk of the Sun, around part of the disk of the planet, which was still in the background of the sky, a thin rim of light flared up, its brightness close to the brightness Sun. Lomonosov called this headband"a hair-thin shine." Exactly the same light rim was observed by Lomonosov when Venus emerged from the disk of the Sun: “a bubble appeared at the edge of the Sun, which is all the more distinct committed, the closer Venus is to the protrusion Leniya came."
The appearance of this rim was subsequently called the “Lomonosov phenomenon.” The scientist gave him the correct explanation tion, writing: “This is nothing other than a show- looks like the refraction of solar rays in Venus’s atmosphere,” and explained this idea with a drawing on which the course of refracted rays was presented. Based on this, the following conclusion was made: “Based on these notes, Mr. Advisor Lomonosov argues that the planet Venus is surrounded by a noble airy atmosphere, the same (if only not greater) than that which surrounds our globe."
This was, in fact, the second great discovery in Venus research. Afterwards it became clear thathnost of Venus in the optical rangeis never observed because shehidden from view by an impenetrable curtain clouds
Atmosphere and surface
Despite the fact that Venus has been studiedtelescopic methods almost 400years, only in the middle XX century, from the beginning Scrap of the "Space Age of Humanity" The picture of the chemical composition of the planet and the structure of its surface began to become clearer.
Previous hypotheses and guesses of scientistsabout the boundless giant ocean covering the entire surface of the planet, or about a waterless desert with unabated dust storms were not elevated to the rank of scientific theory. By- the surface of Venus is completely hidden powerful cloud cover, and only With the help of radars it is possible to “see” its relief.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman goddess of love. This is one of the brightest objects on the celestial sphere, the “morning star”, appearing in the sky at dawn and sunset. Venus is similar to Earth in many ways, but is not at all as friendly as it seems from a distance. The conditions on it are completely unsuitable for the emergence of life. The surface of the planet is hidden from us by an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and clouds of sulfuric acid, creating a strong greenhouse effect. The opacity of the clouds does not allow Venus to be studied in detail, which is why it still remains one of the most mysterious planets for us.
a brief description of
Venus orbits the Sun at a distance of 108 million km, and this value is almost constant, since the planet’s orbit is almost perfectly circular. At the same time, the distance to the Earth changes significantly - from 38 to 261 million km. The radius of Venus is on average 6052 km, density - 5.24 g/cm³ (denser than Earth's). The mass is equal to 82% of the mass of the Earth - 5·10 24 kg. The acceleration of free fall is also close to that of Earth – 8.87 m/s². Venus has no satellites, but until the 18th century, repeated attempts were made to find them, which were unsuccessful.
The planet completes a full circle in its orbit in 225 days, and the days on Venus are the longest in the entire solar system: they last as much as 243 days, longer than the Venusian year. Venus moves in orbit at a speed of 35 km/s. The inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic plane is quite significant - 3.4 degrees. The rotation axis is almost perpendicular to the orbital plane, due to which the northern and southern hemispheres are illuminated by the Sun almost equally, and there is no change of seasons on the planet. Another feature of Venus is that the directions of its rotation and circulation do not coincide, unlike other planets. It is assumed that this is due to a powerful collision with a large celestial body, which changed the orientation of the rotation axis.
Venus is classified as a terrestrial planet and is also called Earth's sister due to its similarity in size, mass and composition. But conditions on Venus can hardly be called similar to those on Earth. Its atmosphere, composed mainly of carbon dioxide, is the densest of any planet of its type. Atmospheric pressure is 92 times greater than Earth's. The surface is enveloped in thick clouds of sulfuric acid. They are opaque to visible radiation, even from artificial satellites, which for a long time made it difficult to see what was underneath them. Only radar methods made it possible for the first time to study the planet's topography, since Venusian clouds turned out to be transparent to radio waves. It was found that there are many traces of volcanic activity on the surface of Venus, but no active volcanoes were found. There are very few craters, which indicates the “youth” of the planet: its age is about 500 million years.
Education
Venus, in its conditions and characteristics of movement, is very different from other planets in the solar system. And it is still impossible to answer the question of what is the reason for such uniqueness. First of all, is this the result of natural evolution or geochemical processes caused by proximity to the Sun.
According to a single hypothesis of the origin of the planets in our system, they all arose from a giant protoplanetary nebula. Thanks to this, the composition of all atmospheres was the same for a long time. After some time, only the cold giant planets were able to retain the most common elements - hydrogen and helium. From planets closer to the Sun, these substances were actually “blown away” into outer space, and they included heavier elements - metals, oxides and sulfides. Planetary atmospheres were formed primarily by volcanic activity, and their initial composition depended on the composition of volcanic gases in the depths.
Atmosphere
Venus has a very powerful atmosphere that hides its surface from direct observation. Most of it consists of carbon dioxide (96%), 3% is nitrogen, and other substances - argon, water vapor and others - even less. In addition, clouds of sulfuric acid are present in large volumes in the atmosphere, and it is they that make it opaque to visible light, but infrared, microwave and radio radiation pass through them. The atmosphere of Venus is 90 times more massive than the Earth's, and also much hotter - its temperature is 740 K. The reason for this heating (more than on the surface of Mercury, which is closer to the Sun) lies in the greenhouse effect arising from the high density of carbon dioxide - the main component atmosphere. The height of the Venusian atmosphere is about 250-350 km.
The atmosphere of Venus constantly circulates and rotates very quickly. Its rotation period is many times shorter than that of the planet itself - only 4 days. The wind speed is also enormous - about 100 m/s in the upper layers, which is much higher than on Earth. However, at low altitudes the wind movement weakens significantly and reaches only about 1 m/s. Powerful anticyclones—polar vortices that have an S-shape—are formed at the planet’s poles.
Like Earth's, Venus's atmosphere consists of several layers. The lower layer - the troposphere - is the densest (99% of the total mass of the atmosphere) and extends to an average altitude of 65 km. Due to the high surface temperature, the lower part of this layer is the hottest in the atmosphere. The wind speed here is also low, but with increasing altitude it increases, and the temperature and pressure decrease, and at an altitude of about 50 km they are already approaching terrestrial values. It is in the troposphere that the greatest circulation of clouds and winds is observed, and weather phenomena are observed - whirlwinds, hurricanes rushing at great speed, and even lightning, which strikes here twice as often as on Earth.
Between the troposphere and the next layer - the mesosphere - there is a thin boundary - the tropopause. Here the conditions are most similar to those on the earth's surface: temperatures range from 20 to 37 °C, and pressure is approximately the same as at sea level.
The mesosphere occupies altitudes from 65 to 120 km. Its lower part has an almost constant temperature of 230 K. At an altitude of about 73 km, the cloud layer begins, and here the temperature of the mesosphere gradually decreases with altitude to 165 K. At approximately an altitude of 95 km, the mesopause begins, and here the atmosphere again begins to heat up to values of the order of 300- 400 K. The temperature is the same for the thermosphere lying above, extending to the upper boundaries of the atmosphere. It is worth noting that, depending on the illumination of the planet’s surface by the Sun, the temperatures of the layers on the day and night sides differ significantly: for example, daytime values for the thermosphere are about 300 K, and nighttime values are only about 100 K. In addition, Venus also has an extended ionosphere at altitudes 100 – 300 km.
At an altitude of 100 km in the atmosphere of Venus there is an ozone layer. The mechanism of its formation is similar to that on Earth.
Venus does not have its own magnetic field, but there is an induced magnetosphere formed by streams of ionized solar wind particles, bringing with them the magnetic field of the star, frozen into the coronal matter. The lines of force of the induced magnetic field seem to flow around the planet. But due to the absence of its own field, the solar wind freely penetrates its atmosphere, provoking its outflow through the magnetospheric tail.
The dense and opaque atmosphere practically does not allow sunlight to reach the surface of Venus, so its illumination is very low.
Structure
Photograph from an interplanetary spacecraft
Information about the topography and internal structure of Venus became available relatively recently thanks to the development of radar. Radio imaging of the planet made it possible to create a map of its surface. It is known that more than 80% of the surface is filled with basaltic lava, and this suggests that the modern relief of Venus was formed mainly by volcanic eruptions. Indeed, there are a lot of volcanoes on the surface of the planet, especially small ones, with a diameter of about 20 kilometers and a height of 1.5 km. It is impossible to say at the moment whether any of them are active. There are much fewer craters on Venus than on other terrestrial planets, since the dense atmosphere prevents most celestial bodies from penetrating through it. In addition, spacecraft discovered hills up to 11 km high on the surface of Venus, occupying about 10% of the total area.
A unified model of the internal structure of Venus has not been developed to this day. According to the most probable one, the planet consists of a thin crust (about 15 km), a mantle more than 3000 km thick and a massive iron-nickel core in the center. The absence of a magnetic field on Venus can be explained by the absence of moving charged particles in the core. This means that the planet's core is solid because there is no movement of matter within it.
Observation
Since Venus is the closest of all the planets to Earth and is therefore most visible in the sky, observing it will not be difficult. It is visible to the naked eye even in the daytime, but at night or at dusk, Venus appears to the eye as the brightest “star” on the celestial sphere with a magnitude of -4.4 m. Thanks to such impressive brightness, the planet can be observed through a telescope even during the day.
Like Mercury, Venus does not move very far from the Sun. The maximum angle of its deflection is 47 °. It is most convenient to observe it shortly before sunrise or immediately after sunset, when the Sun is still below the horizon and does not interfere with observation with its bright light, and the sky is not yet dark enough for the planet to glow too brightly. Because details on the disk of Venus are subtle in observations, it is necessary to use a high-quality telescope. And even in it, most likely, there is only a grayish circle without any details. However, under good conditions and high-quality equipment, sometimes it is still possible to see dark, bizarre shapes and white spots formed by atmospheric clouds. Binoculars are useful only for searching for Venus in the sky and its simplest observations.
The atmosphere on Venus was discovered by M.V. Lomonosov during its passage across the solar disk in 1761.
Venus, like the Moon and Mercury, has phases. This is explained by the fact that its orbit is closer to the Sun than the Earth's, and therefore, when the planet is between the Earth and the Sun, only part of its disk is visible.
The tropopause zone in the atmosphere of Venus, due to conditions similar to those on Earth, is being considered for placing research stations there and even for colonization.
Venus does not have satellites, but for a long time there was a hypothesis according to which it was previously Mercury, but due to some external catastrophic influence it left its gravitational field and became an independent planet. In addition, Venus has a quasi-satellite - an asteroid, the orbit of which around the Sun is such that it does not escape the influence of the planet for a long time.
Due to many similarities with our planet, life on Venus was considered possible for a long time. But since it became known about the composition of its atmosphere, the greenhouse effect and other climatic conditions, it is obvious that such terrestrial life on this planet is impossible.
Venus is one of the candidates for terraforming - changing the climate, temperature and other conditions on the planet in order to make it suitable for life on Earth's organisms. First of all, this will require delivering a sufficient amount of water to Venus to begin the process of photosynthesis. It is also necessary to make the temperature on the surface significantly lower. To do this, it is necessary to negate the greenhouse effect by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, which could be done by cyanobacteria, which would need to be dispersed into the atmosphere.
The second planet from the Sun, Venus, is the closest to Earth and, perhaps, the most beautiful of the terrestrial planets. For thousands of years she has attracted curious glances from scientists of ancient and modern times to mere mortal poets. No wonder she bears the name of the Greek goddess of love. But its study rather adds questions than gives any answers.
One of the first observers, Galileo Galilei, observed Venus with a telescope. With the advent of more powerful optical devices such as telescopes in 1610, people began to observe the phases of Venus, which closely resembled the phases of the moon. Venus is one of the brightest stars in our sky, so at dusk and in the morning, you can see the planet with the naked eye. Watching its passage in front of the Sun, Mikhailo Lomonosov in 1761 examined a thin rainbow rim surrounding the planet. This is how the atmosphere was discovered. It turned out to be very powerful: the pressure near the surface reached 90 atmospheres!
The greenhouse effect explains the high temperatures of the lower layers of the atmosphere. It is also present on other planets, for example on Mars, due to it, the temperature can rise by 9°, on Earth - up to 35°, and on Venus - it reaches its maximum, among planets - up to 480° C.
Internal structure of Venus
The structure of Venus, our neighbor, is similar to other planets. It includes the crust, mantle and core. The radius of the liquid core containing a lot of iron is approximately 3200 km. The structure of the mantle - molten matter - is 2800 km, and the thickness of the crust is 20 km. It is surprising that with such a core, the magnetic field is practically absent. This is most likely due to the slow rotation. The atmosphere of Venus reaches 5500 km, the upper layers of which consist almost entirely of hydrogen. The Soviet automatic interplanetary stations (AMS) Venera-15 and Venera-16 back in 1983 discovered mountain peaks with lava flows on Venus. Now the number of volcanic objects reaches 1600 pieces. Volcanic eruptions indicate activity in the planet's interior, which is locked under thick layers of basalt shell.
Rotation around its own axis
Most of the planets in the solar system rotate around their axis from west to east. Venus, like Uranus, is an exception to this rule, and rotates in the opposite direction, from east to west. This non-standard rotation is called retrograde. Thus, a full revolution around its axis lasts 243 days.
Scientists believe that after the formation of Venus, there was a large amount of water on its surface. But, with the advent of the greenhouse effect, the evaporation of the seas began and the release of carbon dioxide anhydrite, which is part of various rocks, into the atmosphere. This led to an increase in water evaporation and an overall increase in temperature. After some time, the water disappeared from the surface of Venus and entered the atmosphere.
Now, the surface of Venus looks like a rocky desert, with occasional mountains and undulating plains. From the oceans, only huge depressions remained on the planet. Radar data taken from interplanetary stations recorded traces of recent volcanic activity.
In addition to the Soviet spacecraft, the American Magellan also visited Venus. He produced an almost complete mapping of the planet. During the scanning process, a huge number of volcanoes, hundreds of craters and numerous mountains were discovered. Based on their characteristic elevations, relative to the average level, scientists have identified 2 continents - the land of Aphrodite and the land of Ishtar. On the first continent, the size of Africa, there is an 8-kilometer Mount Maat - a huge extinct volcano. The continent of Ishtar is comparable in size to the United States. Its attraction is the 11-kilometer Maxwell Mountains, the highest peaks on the planet. The composition of the rocks resembles terrestrial basalt.
On the Venusian landscape, impact craters filled with lava can be found with a diameter of about 40 km. But this is an exception, because there are about 1 thousand of them in total.
Characteristics of Venus
Weight: 4.87*1024 kg (0.815 earth)
Diameter at the equator: 12102 km
Axle tilt: 177.36°
Density: 5.24 g/cm3
Average surface temperature: +465 °C
Period of rotation around the axis (days): 244 days (retrograde)
Distance from the Sun (average): 0.72 a. e. or 108 million km
Orbital period around the Sun (year): 225 days
Orbital speed: 35 km/s
Orbital eccentricity: e = 0.0068
Orbital inclination to the ecliptic: i = 3.86°
Gravity acceleration: 8.87m/s2
Atmosphere: carbon dioxide (96%), nitrogen (3.4%)
Satellites: no