Background Information:
Venus is the second planet from the sun.
It's surface is completely covered by a very thick layer of yellow clouds. The surface is not hospitable
to people, with sulfuric acid rain falling, a temperature of 900 degrees F., and a surface pressure ninety times
that of the Earth. Several Russian spacecraft have landed and took some pictures
of the surface, but did not last long under the intense pressure and temperature. Venus rotates so slowly,
that it's day is actually longer than it's year.
Magellan Images:
Magellan orbited Venus in 1989, and used radar to see through the clouds.
These are a couple of the images returned:
Orbital & Mass Data:
- Average Distance from Sun : 108.2 million kilometers
- Length of Year : 224.70 Earth days
- Length of Day : 243.01 Earth days
- Diameter : 12,104 kilometers
- Mass (Earth=1) : 0.8150
- Surface Gravity (Earth=1) : 0.903
- Escape velocity : 10.3 kilometers/second
- Average surface temperature : +480 degrees C.
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