Venus is the second planet in the solar system after Mercury. Its orbit around the sun is the most circular in comparison to other planets. After sun and moon, Venus is the brightest object in the sky, historically often referred to as the "evening star" or "morning star".
Since Venus is relatively close to the sun, Venus phases, similar to the phases of the moon, are observable from Earth. These were already recognized by Galileo Galilei and were an important clue to the heliocentric worldview developed by Copernicus.
It has long been believed that Venus is a kind of sister planet to Earth, which is true in some respects: Venus is only slightly smaller than Earth (95% of the Earth's diameter). Venus and Earth have very few impact craters, suggesting a relatively young crust. In addition, the chemical composition of both planets is similar.
Even life was suspected under the dense clouds of Venus. Recent scientific data, however, prove that Venus has a hostile atmosphere. On the surface, the pressure is 90 atm, which corresponds approximately to the pressure at 1 km ocean depth.
The several kilometers thick clouds are made of sulfuric acid, the dense atmosphere creates a greenhouse effect that raises temperatures to almost 500 ° C. The wind speeds are up to 350 km / h. In contrast to Earth, Venus also has no magnetic field, and even a moon is not yet known.
This poster shows everything important to our neighbor planet, including Venus landscapes, which were modeled on the basis of Nasa radar data.
