We now know that it is in fact a very harsh world. The clouds contain acid, and the atmosphere is poisonous. The surface is a desert, with an average temperature of 465oC.
From Earth, we can only see the part of Venus which is lit up by the Sun. Like the Moon, Venus often appears to us as a cresent.
Venus' clouds made by a process called photochemistry, whereby the Sun's ultraviolet rays react with chemicals in Venus' atmosphere. The clouds around Venushave an acid based called sulphur dioxide. It takes 4 days for Venus' clouds to rotate around the planet.
The timeit takes the Sun to reappear at the same place in the sky is 118 days. It is 24,000,000 miles (40,000,000km) away from Earth. It spins itself 243 days and round the Sun 224.7days with the speed 35km per second. Its gravity is 91% Earth's gravity.
