Sunday Science: Venus

The surface of Venus. Image from NASA/JPL.

Despite being named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, there's not much to love about Venus.

​If you landed on the planet, you'd be incinerated by 870 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, burnt alive by clouds of sulphuric acid and crushed by a surface pressure that's 90 times that of the Earth.

There are some similarities between Venus and Earth: including the planets' size, mass, density, composition and gravity. Just like a pair of twins. Except one will kill you instantly and the other nurtures life.

Have we ever been to Venus?

Yes. Quite an extensive list of probes have investigated Venus. NASA first sent the Mariner 2 probe in 1962 and the space agency's last dedicated mission to the planet was Magellan. 

Magellan launched in 1990 and mapped more than 98% of the planet's surface over a four year period. More recently, ESA's Venus Express probe investigated the planet for more than eight years. There are more plans to visit Venus - including a crewed mission from NASA.

Extra reading and watching

Here are some quick fun facts and a more in-depth article about Venus. And here's a video explaining all there is to know about Venus and the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury:

What is Sunday Science?

Hello. I’m the freelance writer who gets tech. I have two degrees in Physics and, during my studies, I became increasingly frustrated with the complicated language used to describe some outstanding scientific principles. Language should aid our understanding — in science, it often feels like a barrier.
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So, I want to simplify these science sayings and this blog series “Sunday Science” gives a quick, no-nonsense definition of the complex-sounding scientific terms you often hear, but may not completely understand. 

If there’s a scientific term or topic you’d like me to tackle in my next post, fire an email to [email protected] or leave a comment below. If you want to sign up to our weekly newsletter, click here.