Planet of the week - Venus

Pic related is Venus in true color, a featureless white ball due to its clouds. Pic was taken by the MESSENGER probe during a flyby.

Venus is the second planet in the Solar System in accordance to its distance to the sun. Located at 108.21 million kilometers (0.728 Astronomical units) during its aphelion and 107.48 million km (0.718 AU) during its perihelion.

It has an orbital period of 224.7 Earth days or 1.92 Venusian days, it spins clockwise over its own axis unlike every other planet in the solar system. It has a radius of 0.9499 Earths, a mass of 0.815 Earths, a mean density of 5.243g/cm^3, and a surface gravity of 8.87m/s^2 (0.904 g).

The mean temperature of Venus is of 464 °C (867 °F) due to a potent greenhouse effect. The atmosphere is made 96.2% of CO2 and the atmospheric pressure is of 9.3 MPa or 92atm. The clouds are made mostly of sulfuric acid.

A number of missions have visited Venus in the past (Venera missions, Mariner, Venus Express) and others are planned for the future (VERITAS, DAVINCI, enVISION, Shukrayaan, Venera D)

Here's a pic from Venus surface taken by Venera-14 in 1982

And an audio recording made by the same probe

!spacechads !ifrickinglovescience