Planetary Database/Terran/Venus
The Planetary Database - Terran System - Venus
Venus is Class Y and second planet from the Terran Star. A terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet", as the two are very similar in size and bulk composition.
Name
Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love, Aphrodite.
The adjective Venusian is commonly used for Venus, but the Latin adjective is Venereal, which is avoided because of its modern association with sexually transmitted diseases. Some astronomers use Cytherean, which comes from Cytherea, another name for Aphrodite in ancient Greek Mythology. Other less common adjectives include Venerean, Venerian, and Veneran.
Atmosphere
Venus has an atmosphere consisting mainly of carbon dioxide and a small amount of nitrogen, with a pressure at the surface about 90 times that of Earth (a pressure equivalent to a depth of 1 kilometer under Earth's oceans); its atmosphere is also roughly 90 times more massive than ours. This enormously CO2-rich atmosphere results in a strong greenhouse effect that raises the surface temperature more than 400 °C (750 °F) above what it would be otherwise, causing temperatures at the surface to reach extremes as great as 500 °C (930 °F) in low elevation regions near the planet's equator. This makes Venus's surface hotter than Mercury's, even though Venus is nearly twice as distant from the Sun and only receives 25% of the solar irradiance (2613.9 W/m² in the upper atmosphere, and just 1071.1 W/m² at the surface). Owing to the thermal inertia and convection of its dense atmosphere, the temperature does not vary significantly between the night and day sides of Venus despite its extremely slow rotation of less than one rotation per Venusian year, meaning that, at the equator, Venus' surface rotates at a mere 6.5 km/h (4 mph). Upper atmosphere winds circling the planet approximately every 4 days help distribute the heat to other areas on the surface.
