The planet Venus is nearest neighbor of Earth. It took the name from the Greek God named Venus and was also called Evening Star. The planet Venus can be observed after sunset and before sunrise. Venus is the solar system's 6th largest planet and is closer to the sun than the Earth. It is the only planet that orbits clockwise.

Venus is called Shukra in the ancient Hindu astrology. It was observed by the Babylonians in the early 1600BC and was called planet Ishtar, the goddess of love and womanhood.

Venus was known as the wandering star long before the invention of telescope. The westerners had thought Venus to be two different planets in the morning and late afternoon. Phythagoras was the first to find out in the 6th century that the planet was one. He thought that Venus orbited around Earth. Galileo noticed in 17th century that Venus had traits like the moon.

A Russian genius named Mikhail Lomonosov had first discovered the atmosphere of Venus in 1761. Further observations were made by Johann Schroter an1790 and figured out that Venus appeared like a crescent. Chester Smith Lyman was the first to discover the ring around dark side of the planet. The atmosphere of Venus is very dense which causes problem for scientists who wanted to know its rotation period. However, Johan Schroter and Giovanni Cassini thought that Venus had a rotation period of 24 hours.

Venus has some traits which are similar with Earth. Venus contains silicon rocks present on its surface just like Earth. The size and make up is similar to Earth. Moreover, Venus and Earth has the same core that is made up of compact iron deposits and the center of Venus is very similar to that of Earth. However, its atmosphere is very dense for hosting life. Venus is filled with sulfuric acid clouds and the severe heat dries up all bodies of water. Its surface is a lot hotter than Mercury's. Majority of Venus surface features are inspired from women.

There have been a number of space probe missions to Venus. The first one was the Russian Venera 1. However it lost contact with Earth after seven days. The first successful spacecraft that came close to Venus was America's Mariner 2 in 1962. There have been over 20 spacecraft visits to Venus.

You might also want to learn who discovered Venus and also who discovered Saturn.

Author:
Discovery of Planet Venus?