14: Venus

Astronomy 2e Openstax · LibreTexts

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    • 14.1: The Nearest Planets - An Overview
      Venus, the nearest planet, is a great disappointment through the telescope because of its impenetrable cloud cover. Mars is more tantalizing, with dark markings and polar caps. Early in the twentieth century, it was widely believed that the “canals” of Mars indicated intelligent life there. Mars has only 11% the mass of Earth, but Venus is nearly our twin in size and mass. Mars rotates in 24 hours and has seasons like Earth; Venus has a retrograde rotation period of 243 days.
    • 14.2: The Geology of Venus
      Venus has been mapped by radar, especially with the Magellan spacecraft. Its crust consists of 75% lowland lava plains, numerous volcanic features, and many large coronae, which are the expression of subsurface volcanism. The planet has been modified by widespread tectonics driven by mantle convection, forming complex patterns of ridges and cracks and building high continental regions such as Ishtar. The surface is extraordinarily inhospitable, with pressure of 90 bars and temperature of 730 K.
    • 14.3: The Massive Atmosphere of Venus
      The atmosphere of Venus is 96% CO2. Thick clouds at altitudes of 30 to 60 kilometers are made of sulfuric acid, and a CO2greenhouse effect maintains the high surface temperature. Venus presumably reached its current state from more earthlike initial conditions as a result of a runaway greenhouse effect, which included the loss of large quantities of water.

    This page titled 14: Venus was last modified on Fri, 16 May 2025 18:10:26 GMT and is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rachel Mastrapa.