Feb

21

Evening Star.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

February 21, 2007 |

If you live in the Western hemisphere you can look to the West half an hour to an hour after sunset and see our closest neighbor: the planet Venus. Named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty (and wife of Vulcan, though Venus also carried on a torrid affair with Mars, among others), it has been seen many different ways in different cultures. In the Mayan Popol Vuh Venus is a symbol of death when seen at night, and then “reborn” when it appears as the morning star.venus.jpg Venus is, after the Sun and Moon, the brightest object in the sky. At roughly 42 million kilometers from the Earth, Venus is closer to us than Mars by 14 million kilometers (give or take). Because it’s between us and the Sun Venus also, like the moon, goes through phases over a period of 584 days.

The Venusian day is 225 Earth days, just shy of a Venusian year which is 243 Earth days. Sulphuric acid rain and snowflakes regularly rain on the surface which, thanks to dense carbon dioxide, averages 460 degrees Celsius. Talk about global warming!

Take a few minutes tonight to step out and say hello to Venus. And keep looking up.


Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Angel on February 22, 2007 10:45 am

    I think the Venusian day is 243 Earth days and the Venusian year is 225 Earth days. Interesting place where the days are longer than the years! My source:

    http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Venus&Display=Kids

  2. Christopher Waldrop on February 22, 2007 10:52 am

    I stand corrected. Or, to be completely honest, I sit corrected. The Venusian day is longer than its year. What a curious place.

  3. John on February 23, 2007 3:49 pm

    What about leap year…?

  4. Christopher Waldrop on February 23, 2007 4:48 pm

    If you want to get really technical about it the only reason we have leap years is because the Earth “year” is 365 days and 6 hours, but it’s hard enough staying up until midnight to ring in the New Year. Imagine waiting until six in the morning to see the big ball drop in Times Square. I’d love to see a Venusian calendar to see if they’ve worked out anything better.

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