Venus has been romantasized throughout history. It has been called our twin sister, the planet of love, and many stories have been made about it. One that comes to mind is C.S. Lewis's space trilogy. In the second book in the trilogy, Pereladra, the main character goes to Venus in a coffin spaceship. Where he lands is covered in water, with stretches of grass or something floating on top. Everything there is provided for and each meal is better than the last. Alas, this is not to be.
Now that we've sent probes to Venus, we know how wrong this is. It's quite the opposite, in fact. It's deadly, dangerous, and barren. The probes sent melted within an hour after landing on the surface. That's how hot it is! And it's all because of those mysterious clouds that surround Venus.
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| 1979 ultraviolet image taken by Pioneer Venus |
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| Hubble Space telescope using solid state imaging |
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| Hubble telescope using ultra violet imaging |
There's lots of volcanic activity on Venus but no plate tectonics, not like what we see on Earth. The plates don't move around but magma still pushes its way to the surface.
One of the coolest things about Venus is that it rotates the opposite way that Earth does. It also rotates very slow. Before things got more settled in the solar system Venus was hit with a big enough object to force its rotation in the opposite direction. That also makes it so Venus doesn't have a magnetic field. That just adds to all the craziness going on already!
Venus has been called our twin but the only thing similar is their sizes. According to the Universe television series, Venus is our evil twin. Evil or not, it's a fascinating planet, enough to be named after the goddess of love
Notes:
Textbook: Astronomy Today; Chaisson, McMillan
Images:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/search_grid.php?category=venus
