Top 10 Interesting and Weird Facts About Venus You Probably Don't Know

Sure the space is filled with wonders that mankind might never even get to know about. That seems quite obvious to all of us. But what about the planet that’s closest to us? Read on and you will know the answer.

Earth has a protective bubble ‘magnetosphere’ that Venus doesn’t

First of all, this is the first time many of you might be hearing this word, but due to the intrinsic magnetic field of planets like Earth, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn a protective magnetic bubble called the magnetosphere is created around the planets’ atmospheres and protect them against the harmful radiations emitted by the sun. In an article on NASA’s official website by Karen C. Fox (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland) he has stated that:

Some planets, such as Venus, don’t have protective magnetospheres and this can be bad news. On Dec. 19, 2006, the sun ejected a small, slow-moving puff of solar material. Four days later, this sluggish CME was nevertheless powerful enough to rip away dramatic amounts of oxygen out of Venus’ atmosphere and send it out into space, where it was lost forever.

So now you know that just water and oxygen or ‘The atmosphere per se’ is not enough to sustain life on a planet.

This is what Dr. Fox says about that:

While no one yet knows what’s needed to build a habitable planet, it’s clear that the interplay between the Sun and Earth is crucial for making our planet livable – a balance between a sun that provides energy and a planet that can protect itself from the harshest solar emissions.

Venus Has Days That Are Longer Than Years

For one rotation on its axis (one day) Venus takes 243 Earth days, while to complete one revolution around the sun it takes just 224.7 Earth Days.

In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility. She was the Roman counterpart to the Greek Aphrodite.

So now do you see why lovers say “Days without you longer than years”.

Earth’s Sister Planet/ Twin Planet

Venus is the planet that is not only closest to earth, but also is very similar. It’s also called Earth’s Sister Planet or Twin Planet. Here’s why:

Term	Earth	Venus
Radius	6,371 km	6,052 km
Mass	5.972E24 kg	4.867E24 kg
Gravity	9.807 m/s²	8.87 m/s²

Venus ‘The Devil’s Planet’

There are most number of volcanoes on Venus than the whole Solar System combined. More than 1600 known and many unknown. While most are reportedly inactive, a few are active.craters, volcanoes, mountains, and big lava plains. Venus does not have any liquid water on the surface. But all this does not even begin to describe how really harsh Venus is. Read on and you will know what I mean.

Also Read: Last Words of 10 Most Famous and Wise People

It’s ‘The Hottest Planet’

It’s atmosphere is filled with clouds consisting of mercury, ferric chloride hydrocarbons and sulphuric acid which create the harshest known acid rain. The dense clouds do not allow any heat to pass through to the surface is trapped by the extreme amount (96.5%) of Carbon Dioxide of the atmosphere. Causing repeated greenhouse effect to take the surface temperature to 462 degree Celsius.

So next time you are really angry at someone, Don’t say ‘Go to Hell’, Rather say ‘Go to Venus’. Doesn’t that sound like a very interesting way to curse someone? I know it is.

The Brightest Planet, the second-brightest object in the nighttime sky

So, all things about the Bad Guy Venus are bad huh?

The Science –

Those diabolic acid clouds of venus reflect most (70%) of the sunlight reaching it making it so bright that it can be seen few hours after sunset and before sunrise as the second brightest object in the night-time sky.

Wait which is the brightest object then? Oh.. It’s Moon.

We can see ‘Venus Crossing The Sun’ a.k.a ‘Transit of Venus’ which makes a ‘Spot on the Sun’

Here’s the science – Venus has an orbit smaller than earth and thus, when venus falls between the line of sight from earth to the sun obscuring a small portion of the solar disk, that’s what’s called ‘Transit of Venus’. Think of it as a ‘Solar Eclipse Caused by Venus’. The only difference, a very small part of the ‘Solar Disc’ is covered. So you won’t even notice if you are not looking for it. And don’t worry- you won’t get to witness ‘Spot on the Sun’ because ‘Transit of Venus’ occur in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years.

The last transit of Venus was on 5 and 6 June 2012, and was the last Venus transit of the 21st century; the prior transit took place on 8 June 2004. The previous pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The next transits of Venus will be 10–11 December 2117, and 8 December 2125. – Wikipedia.

Here’s the fun part: Next time someone tells you a fancy story about spots on the moon tell them about ‘Spot on the Sun’. And see what they have to say about that.

It’s One Hell of a Windy Planet

At the top clouds of venus the wind speed is up to 355 KM/hour and as we go downwards the speed increases to a maximum of 700 KM/hour (Almost 200 metres/second). That’s more speed than the speediest tornadoes on earth. And on the surface the wind speeds are a few kilometres per hour. That’s not much but it can still blow particles and small rocks.

So now you know what I meant when I said – ‘It’s One Hell of a Windy Planet’.

Also Read: Top 10 Most Popular Internet Abbreviations Acronyms and Facts

Venus Rotates from east to west, and has no moon

Venus and Uranus are the only planet that rotate clockwise or from east to west, also known as Retrograde (indirect) Rotation because it is opposite to the sun and the other planets’ natural direction of rotation.

Simply saying it means – Venus and Uranus are nuts or if we are to believe ’space-facts.com’ they went nuts after colliding with some asteroids or other big object.

Also venus along with mercury doesn’t have a natural satellite. All the other planets except mercury and Venus have natural satellites (Moons).

Has it ever occurred to NASA that Venus decided not to have a moon just so that Mercury doesn’t feel left out.

The Planet of historical importance

First Recorded in 17th century BC by Babylonian astronomers, Venus was considered as two different bodies at early civilisations. Greeks called them Phosphorus and Hesperus and Romans called them Lucifer and Vesper. Because of its double appearance after sunset and before sunrise (as described in Point no.6 ). For the same reason it’s also called ‘The Evening Star’ and ‘The Morning Star’.

Detailed observations of Venus was made by Mayan astronomers as early as 650 AD.

Honourable mention: Just like the Moon, Venus has Phases as well.