Venus, second planet from the Sun, with its day longer than its year. Named by the ancients after the goddess of love and beauty - Ishtar to the Babylonians, Aphrodite to the Greeks and Venus to the Romans. Its reflective white clouds make it the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. Often regarded as Earth’s twin - Venus and Earth are of similar size and both have few craters. But with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide 90 times denser than Earth’s and clouds of sulphuric acid many kilometres thick, this is a very inhospitable planet. An extreme greenhouse effect means that its surface is the hottest of any planet at 480^oC, hot enough to melt lead. Venus has no moons.

For information about the real Venus go to Bill Arnott’s nine planet site: http://nineplanets.org/venus.html

Venus in winter and summer....