History UsefulNotes / Venus

[[caption-width-right:330:The Veiled Planet [[note]]Venus appears featureless in normal light -- this picture was taken in the ultraviolet to show clouds.[[/note]]]]

* ''Mariner 2'' (UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}, launched and had flyby in 1962)

* ''Vega''s ''1'' and ''2'' (USSR, flyby/lander/atmospheric balloon, 1984–85): Motherships continued on to Halley's comet. ''Vega 1'''s lander failed.

[[caption-width-right:330:The Veiled Planet [[note]]Venus appears featureless in normal light — this picture was taken in the ultraviolet to show clouds.[[/note]]]]

The second planet from {{UsefulNotes/the Sun}}, the closest planetary orbit to the Earth's. As seen from the Earth, it's often the brightest point of light in the night sky — in fact, if you know where to look, it can sometimes be seen even in full daylight. This brightness is partly due to how close it gets to the Earth, and partly due to its bright whitish cloud cover. Interestingly, Venus appears brightest when it's in its crescent phase, because it's much closer to the Earth at that point than it is when it's in its gibbous phase. (Venus can't be seen when it's full, of course, since the Sun is smack-dab between the Earth and the planet at that point.) Since Venus is never more than 40-some-odd degrees away from the Sun, it's most prominent right after sunset or right before sunrise, giving it the names "evening star" and "morning star" (The word for "morning star" in Latin is Lucifer. Yes, really[[note]]In case you're wondering, it is used in Latin translations of [[Literature/BookOfIsaiah Isaiah 14:12]], in which the King of Babylon, in the passage describing his downfall, is compared to the morning star. Christian thinkers interpreted "morning star" to mean [[{{Satan}} the Devil]], but the Bible implies nothing of sort.[[/note]]). Venus is also the brightest planet as seen from Mercury (where, at an apparent magnitude of -7.7, it is the brightest of ''any'' planet in our Solar System as seen from the surface of another)[[note]]Given that at its closest is seen in full phase, unlike as seen from Earth[[/note]] and even Mars (-3.2), despite Earth being both larger and nearer.

Its surface features, long hidden under the constant cloud cover, were finally mapped by UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}'s ''Magellan'' space probe using radar in [[TheNineties the 1990s]]. The highest mountain is Maxwell Montes, almost 11 kilometres above the average surface level. If you stood on its peak, it'd be a downright chilly 380°C[[labelnote:*]]716°F[[/labelnote]], and a mere 60 atmospheres of pressure and you'd see the Venusian equivalent of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_snow snow]] --lead and/or bismuth sulfide. The culprit for all this heat is the greenhouse effect — Earth's atmosphere is less than 1% carbon dioxide, while Venus's is over 90% carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the Earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth) and created a super greenhouse effect with temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees. [[note]]This plus the slow rotation probably wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LethalLavaLand there seems to be intermittent planet-wide volcanism wiping out many of the planet's surface features every billion years or so]]. [[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001Icar..150...19B Some estimations]] suggest said events can cool the planet ''a bit'' as massive clouds of sulphur dioxide and water vapor form, just to be later warmed up to 600°C (1160°F) by the even more powerful greenhouse effect caused by the latter, clearing the atmosphere as the former is absorbed by the surface, before going back to those 500°C (900°F) as water vapor is lost to space and sulphur dioxide clouds come back. And remember that as the Sun ages it's more luminous, so temperatures can only go up[[/note]] Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space and sank down and fused with the rocks respectively, leaving Venus high and dry. Due to Venus being mythologically associated with femininity, by convention all geographic features there are named after women or female entities, except for Maxwell Montes and Alpha and Beta Regio. [[note]]These features were first detected by ground-based radar in the mid-1960's; Alpha and Beta Regio were the first two terrain features to be isolated, and Maxwell Montes was named after James Clerk Maxwell, the formulator of the theory and equations of electromagnetism that ultimately led to the invention of radar.[[/note]] There is some argument over whether the proper adjective is "Venusian", "Venerean", or "Cytherean" — just don't use "Venereal".[[note]]Technically, the scientifically accepted demonym/adjective is "Cytherean", because "Venerean" sounds too similar to "Venereal", "Aphrodisial" sounds too similar to "Aphrodisiac", and "Venusian" is poor grammar — akin to "Earthian" or "Jupiterian" (The correct demonyms being, respectively, "Terrestrial" and "Jovian"). In practice, the most commonly used adjective is "Venusian".[[/note]]

Venus has the slowest rotation out of any planet in the Solar System, and it rotates in a clockwise direction relative to the other planets (meaning it spins backwards). It's not entirely understood why the planet came to be with such an unusual rotation, but one of the theories is that at some point in the planet's early history, a planetesimal struck it at an oblique angle, causing it to rotate very slowly backwards. However, this theory is contested because of the lack of geological evidence on the planet's surface. If such an event did happen, the global resurfacing event some 500-300 million years ago likely erased the evidence. Another more plausible theory is that Venus's original counterclockwise rotation gradually slowed because of tidal interactions with the Sun, but its dense atmosphere created an equilibrium effect to prevent it from becoming tidally locked, hence the reverse rotation. As a result of this super-slow rotation, a Cytherean solar day is longer than a Venusian year (Venus's year is 225 Earth days, its day is 243 Earth days). Not that you'd be able to ''see'' much difference between day and night while on the surface. Whether you're on the day side or the night side, you'll see a hazy overcast sky that's about the same brightness everywhere — assuming you survive the lack of oxygen, the crushing pressures, and the hellish temperatures, that is[[note]]Day surface levels of light are similar to a cloudcast day on Earth, and it has been calculated that [[https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4y2331/is_visibility_much_worse_in_venuss_atmosphere/ visibility levels would be up to 3 kilometers]]. In addition to this, [[http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/2237/how-long-will-it-be-light-on-venus-at-night the refraction of the Venusian atmosphere is so high]] that it would look as if you were in a basin/valley (calculations show too that at a height of 35 kilometers you'd be able to see ''the entire planet'' (read: clouds) in a panoramic view). Down on Venus's surface objects dropped to the ground would very slowly fall due to the atmosphere's density (50 times more than Earth's one, or 6.5% of water's density), moving would rather be similar to swimming, and winds while having breeze-like speeds would have hurricane-like strength for the same reasons. Meanwhile, the sky would just show a faint sliver of light where the Sun was located, and on the night side, besides lightning and active volcanoes illuminating the clouds, you'd probably be able to see rocks glowing with a very faint red color due to the searing hot temperatures. Have fun while you're there (And have we mentioned Venus is very often compared to [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Hell]]?)[[/note]]. Yet another theory is that Venus actually ''isn't'' rotating backwards, but is rotating counterclockwise just like every other planet in the Solar System...except that one or more impacts early in its life (rather than altering the rotation) flipped Venus upside down (a more extreme version of how UsefulNotes/{{Uranus}} got flipped sideways on its axis), meaning that what we've been thinking of as Venus's north pole could actually be its south pole. This slow rotation is also responsible for the current state of Venus's atmosphere. Venus rotates far too slowly to produce a strong magnetic field, leaving the water vapor that was once in its atmosphere vulnerable to dissociation by solar radiation. If circumstances had left Venus rotating at a similar rate to Earth, its magnetic field would be nearly as strong, and then who knows what the planet would be like.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E55MrDingleTheStrong Mr. Dingle, the Strong]]" has a plot primarily involving Martians giving the feeble, unassertive Mr. Luther Dingle superhuman strength, but are disappointed when he uses it purely for exhibition. When they terminate the experiment and are preparing to leave Earth, the two meet a pair of Venusians planning on running their own experiment involving superhuman intelligence. The Martians point them in the direction of Mr. Dingle.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E64WillTheRealMartianPleaseStandUp Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?]]" is a much more serious use of the AlienInvasion trope. When a pair of state troopers find a crashed spaceship in a frozen lake and footprints leading to a diner, they find that they have to sort out who among the patrons is human and who's the Martian. Unfortunately for them, after the Martian — being a MasterOfIllusion — manages to trick them all into heading out across an unstable bridge, killing them off and guaranteeing that the plans for a colony on Earth will go ahead. Unfortunately for ''the Martian'', the counterman he's bragging to reveals himself to be a Venusian and not only have they intercepted the Martian fleet, but they also have plans to colonize Earth.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E95HocusPocusAndFrisby Hocus-Pocus and Frisby]]", the aliens who try to abduct Somerset Frisby have a Venusian specimen who can sing at eight different pitches simultaneously and accompanies himself with his tail.

* Creator/StephenKing's short story ''[[Literature/NightShift I Am the Doorway]]'' concerns a manned mission to Venus that goes horribly, horribly wrong (you want an idea how wrong, [[https://le0pard13.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/3eb908c333195286e7-0.jpg look at the cover]]). Because it was written in 1971, near the beginning of the ''Venera'' program, it spans the gap between our early, speculative take on Venus and our full, horrified understanding of its true nature. Nonetheless, being King, it contains some fittingly chilling descriptions of the planet's surface that would turn out to be unwittingly prescient [[http://i.imgur.com/lh4a46c.jpg once the pictures came in]].
-->"That was Venus. Nothing but nothing — except it scared me. It was like circling a haunted house in the middle of deep space. I know how unscientific that sounds, but I was scared gutless until we got out of there. I think if our rockets hadn't gone off, I would have cut my throat on the way down. It's not like the moon. The moon is desolate but somehow antiseptic. That world we saw was utterly unlike anything that anyone has ever seen. Maybe it's a good thing that cloud cover is there. It was like a skull that's been picked clean — that's the closest I can get."

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/SpaceCadet'', the titular cadets answer a Cytherean DistressCall. Venus is depicted as the typical swamp planet of the pre-''Venera'' wishful-thinking days in all of Heinlein's works that mention the planet, such as the novels ''Literature/BetweenPlanets'', ''Literature/PodkayneOfMars'', and ''Literature/ThePuppetMasters''; and the short stories "Logic of Empire" and "Tenderfoot on Venus".

Venus has the slowest rotation out of any planet in the Solar System, and it rotates in a clockwise direction relative to the other planets (meaning it spins backwards). It's not entirely understood why the planet came to be with such an unusual rotation, but one of the theories is that at some point in the planet's early history, a planetesimal struck it at an oblique angle, causing it to rotate very slowly backwards. However, this theory is contested because of the lack of geological evidence on the planet's surface. If such an event did happen, the global resurfacing event some 500-300 million years ago likely erased the evidence. Another more plausible theory is that Venus's original counterclockwise rotation gradually slowed because of tidal interactions with the Sun, but its dense atmosphere created an equilibrium effect to prevent it from becoming tidally locked, hence the reverse rotation. As a result of this super-slow rotation, a Cytherean solar day is longer than a Venusian year (Venus's year is 225 Earth days, its day is 243 Earth days). Not that you'd be able to ''see'' much difference between day and night while on the surface. Whether you're on the day side or the night side, you'll see a hazy overcast sky that's about the same brightness everywhere — assuming you survive the lack of oxygen, the crushing pressures, and the hellish temperatures, that is[[note]]Day surface levels of light are similar to a cloudcast day on Earth, and it has been calculated that [[https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4y2331/is_visibility_much_worse_in_venuss_atmosphere/ visibility levels would be up to 3 kilometers]]. In addition to this, [[http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/2237/how-long-will-it-be-light-on-venus-at-night the refraction of the Venusian atmosphere is so high]] that it would look as if you were in a basin/valley (calculations show too that at a height of 35 kilometers you'd be able to see ''the entire planet'' (read: clouds) in a panoramic view). Down on Venus's surface objects dropped to the ground would very slowly fall due to the atmosphere's density (50 times more than Earth's one, or 6.5% of water's density), moving would rather be similar to swimming, and winds while having breeze-like speeds would have hurricane-like strength for the same reasons. Meanwhile, the sky would just show a faint sliver of light where the Sun was located, and on the night side besides lightning and active volcanoes illuminating the clouds you'd probably be able to see rocks glowing with a very faint red color due to the searing hot temperatures. Have fun while you're there (And have we mentioned Venus is very often compared to [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Hell]]?)[[/note]]. Yet another theory is that Venus actually ''isn't'' rotating backwards, but is rotating counterclockwise just like every other planet in the Solar System...except that one or more impacts early in its life (rather than altering the rotation) flipped Venus upside down (a more extreme version of how UsefulNotes/{{Uranus}} got flipped sideways on its axis), meaning that what we've been thinking of as Venus's north pole could actually be its south pole. This slow rotation is also responsible for the current state of Venus's atmosphere. Venus rotates far too slowly to produce a strong magnetic field, leaving the water vapor that was once in its atmosphere vulnerable to dissociation by solar radiation. If circumstances had left Venus rotating at a similar rate to Earth, its magnetic field would be nearly as strong, and then who knows what the planet would be like.

The thick cloud layer has rendered any optical observation of the surface from orbit impossible. Because of this constant obstacle, outside of images taken from the ''Venera'' landers, scientists must rely on radar imaging to peer through the clouds and make out details of what's below. Unfortunately, many images from orbit, like the famous ''Magellan'' [[https://media.wired.com/photos/5e59ad2b79c7100008eb6ae8/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/photo_space_venus_1_S91-50688.jpg radar map]], are not accurate to what Venus looks like with its clouds off, since they have been colorized to bring out detail. The reason the ''Magellan'' radar maps appear yellow is simply an artistic decision on the scientists' part based on the colour of the planet's atmosphere at the surface. In reality, Venus's surface as noted above would resemble a global volcanic lava field, and at that scale would be flat black to our eyes. Even images of Venus with its clouds still on are usually wrong. Venus actually looks [[http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/image/3447783055_7201387b94_o.png like this]]; but it's easy to see why that image isn't widely circulated. Any layman glancing at it would [[RealityIsUnrealistic just assume it was black and white]].

Well, now some optimistic stuff about Venus. There is a layer in its atmosphere where both temperature and pressure are Earthlike, located some 60 kilometers above the surface. The only non-Earthlike thing in this habitability zone is atmospheric chemistry, which is mostly CO[[subscript:2]] with some sulfuric acid vapors; but it also means that normal Earth air will work in this atmosphere like a lifting gas, easily supporting a [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Cloud City]]. There have also been [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Venus#Phosphine claims in 2020]] about phospine, perhaps formed by life, being detected on Venus' clouds. However at the time of this writing such evidence is disputed.

Besides the Moon, Venus is also the best place in the Solar System to see our planet. From there, Earth appears as a dazzling blue star that would be at its closest much brighter than Venus seen from our planet (apparent magnitudes -6.6 vs. -4.7, respectively), large enough to appear as a disk with binoculars and even to the Mark I eyeball with sharp enough vision, and that with a telescope would give a lot of fun as weather patterns change and continents/oceans move below because of its rotation. UsefulNotes/TheMoon (-2.7) would appear almost as bright as we see UsefulNotes/{{Jupiter}} (-2.94), and while looking much more dull than Earth it would contribute with still more fun for astronomers as the former orbits the latter and both bodies approached, moved away, and in some cases overlapped. Nice AlienSky, if all those clouds were not in the middle.

And as we all know from pop-psychology, [[MarsAndVenusGenderContrast women are from there]].

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Diana befriends Queen Desira of Venus and Paula's Space Transformer was initially built as a dedicated teleportation device between Earth and Venus. It is the planet outside of earth on which Diana spends the most time.

Its surface features, long hidden under the constant cloud cover, were finally mapped by UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}'s ''Magellan'' space probe using radar in [[TheNineties the 1990s]]. The highest mountain is Maxwell Montes, almost 11 kilometres above the average surface level. If you stood on its peak, it'd be a downright chilly 380°C[[labelnote:*]]716°F[[/labelnote]], and a mere 60 atmospheres of pressure and you'd see the Venusian equivalent of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_snow snow]] --lead and/or bismuth sulfide. The culprit for all this heat is the greenhouse effect — Earth's atmosphere is less than 1% carbon dioxide, while Venus's is over 90% carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the Earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth) and created a super greenhouse effect with temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees. [[note]]This plus the slow rotation probably wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LethalLavaLand there seems to be intermittent planet-wide volcanism wiping out many of the planet's surface features every billion years or so]]. [[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001Icar..150...19B Some estimations]] suggest said events can cool the planet ''a bit'' as massive clouds of sulphur dioxide and water vapor form, just to be later warmed up to 600°C (1160°F) by the even more powerful greenhouse effect caused by the latter, clearing the atmosphere as the former is absorbed by the surface, before going back to those 500°C (900°F) as water vapor is lost and sulphur dioxide clouds come back. And remember that as the Sun ages it's more luminous, so temperatures can only go up[[/note]] Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space and sank down and fused with the rocks respectively, leaving Venus high and dry. Due to Venus being mythologically associated with femininity, by convention all geographic features there are named after women or female entities, except for Maxwell Montes and Alpha and Beta Regio. [[note]]These features were first detected by ground-based radar in the mid-1960's; Alpha and Beta Regio were the first two terrain features to be isolated, and Maxwell Montes was named after James Clerk Maxwell, the formulator of the theory and equations of electromagnetism that ultimately led to the invention of radar.[[/note]] There is some argument over whether the proper adjective is "Venusian", "Venerean", or "Cytherean" — just don't use "Venereal".[[note]]Technically, the scientifically accepted demonym/adjective is "Cytherean", because "Venerean" sounds too similar to "Venereal", "Aphrodisial" sounds too similar to "Aphrodisiac", and "Venusian" is poor grammar — akin to "Earthian" or "Jupiterian" (The correct demonyms being, respectively, "Terrestrial" and "Jovian"). In practice, the most commonly used adjective is "Venusian".[[/note]]

Its surface features, long hidden under the constant cloud cover, were finally mapped by UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}'s ''Magellan'' space probe using radar in [[TheNineties the 1990s]]. The highest mountain is Maxwell Montes, almost 11 kilometres above the average surface level. If you stood on its peak, it'd be a downright chilly 380°C[[labelnote:*]]716°F[[/labelnote]], and a mere 60 atmospheres of pressure and you'd see the Venusian equivalent of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_snow snow]] --lead and/or bismuth sulfide. The culprit for all this heat is the greenhouse effect — Earth's atmosphere is less than 1% carbon dioxide, while Venus's is over 90% carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the Earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth) and created a super greenhouse effect with temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees. [[note]]This plus the slow rotation probably wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LethalLavaLand there seems to be intermittent planet-wide volcanism wiping out many of the planet's surface features every billion years or so]]. [[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001Icar..150...19B Some estimations]] suggest said events can cool the planet ''a bit'' as massive clouds of sulphur dioxide and water vapor form, just to be later warmed up to 600°C (1160°F) by the latter, clearing the atmosphere as the former is absorbed by the surface, before going back to those 500°C (900°F) as water vapor is lost and clouds come back. And remember that as the Sun ages it's more luminous, so temperatures can only go up[[/note]] Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space and sank down and fused with the rocks respectively, leaving Venus high and dry. Due to Venus being mythologically associated with femininity, by convention all geographic features there are named after women or female entities, except for Maxwell Montes and Alpha and Beta Regio. [[note]]These features were first detected by ground-based radar in the mid-1960's; Alpha and Beta Regio were the first two terrain features to be isolated, and Maxwell Montes was named after James Clerk Maxwell, the formulator of the theory and equations of electromagnetism that ultimately led to the invention of radar.[[/note]] There is some argument over whether the proper adjective is "Venusian", "Venerean", or "Cytherean" — just don't use "Venereal".[[note]]Technically, the scientifically accepted demonym/adjective is "Cytherean", because "Venerean" sounds too similar to "Venereal", "Aphrodisial" sounds too similar to "Aphrodisiac", and "Venusian" is poor grammar — akin to "Earthian" or "Jupiterian" (The correct demonyms being, respectively, "Terrestrial" and "Jovian"). In practice, the most commonly used adjective is "Venusian".[[/note]]

* Immanuel Velikovsky proposed, based on his reading of certain ancient mythology, that Venus was originally spat out of {{UsefulNotes/Jupiter}}, and wandered through the inner Solar System causing the parting of the Red Sea and [[Literature/TheBible Joshua 10:13's]] sun-standing-still-in-the-sky episode, before settling into its current near-circular orbit. In fact, an object the size of Venus achieving Jovian escape velocity would require enough energy to blow Jupiter apart 200 times over.

Its surface features, long hidden under the constant cloud cover, were finally mapped by UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}'s ''Magellan'' space probe using radar in [[TheNineties the 1990s]]. The highest mountain is Maxwell Montes, almost 11 kilometres above the average surface level. If you stood on its peak, it'd be a downright chilly 380°C[[labelnote:*]]716°F[[/labelnote]], and a mere 60 atmospheres of pressure and you'd see the Venusian equivalent of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_snow snow]] --lead and/or bismuth sulfide. The culprit for all this heat is the greenhouse effect — Earth's atmosphere is less than 1% carbon dioxide, while Venus's is over 90% carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the Earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth) and created [[UpToEleven a super greenhouse effect]] with temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees. [[note]]This plus the slow rotation probably wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LethalLavaLand there seems to be intermittent planet-wide volcanism wiping out many of the planet's surface features every billion years or so]]. [[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001Icar..150...19B Some estimations]] suggest said events can cool the planet ''a bit'' as massive clouds of sulphur dioxide and water vapor form, just to be later warmed up to 600°C (1160°F) by the latter, clearing the atmosphere as the former is absorbed by the surface, before going back to those 500°C (900°F) as water vapor is lost and clouds come back. And remember that as the Sun ages it's more luminous, so temperatures can only go up[[/note]] Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space and sank down and fused with the rocks respectively, leaving Venus high and dry. Due to Venus being mythologically associated with femininity, by convention all geographic features there are named after women or female entities, except for Maxwell Montes and Alpha and Beta Regio. [[note]]These features were first detected by ground-based radar in the mid-1960's; Alpha and Beta Regio were the first two terrain features to be isolated, and Maxwell Montes was named after James Clerk Maxwell, the formulator of the theory and equations of electromagnetism that ultimately led to the invention of radar.[[/note]] There is some argument over whether the proper adjective is "Venusian", "Venerean", or "Cytherean" — just don't use "Venereal".[[note]]Technically, the scientifically accepted demonym/adjective is "Cytherean", because "Venerean" sounds too similar to "Venereal", "Aphrodisial" sounds too similar to "Aphrodisiac", and "Venusian" is poor grammar — akin to "Earthian" or "Jupiterian" (The correct demonyms being, respectively, "Terrestrial" and "Jovian"). In practice, the most commonly used adjective is "Venusian".[[/note]]

The second planet from {{UsefulNotes/the Sun}}, the closest planetary orbit to the Earth's. As seen from the Earth, it's often the brightest point of light in the night sky — in fact, if you know where to look, it can sometimes be seen even in full daylight. This brightness is partly due to how close it gets to the Earth, and partly due to its bright whitish cloud cover. Interestingly, Venus appears brightest when it's in its crescent phase, because it's much closer to the Earth at that point than it is when it's in its gibbous phase. (Venus can't be seen when it's full, of course, since the Sun is smack-dab between the Earth and the planet at that point.) Since Venus is never more than 40-some-odd degrees away from the Sun, it's most prominent right after sunset or right before sunrise, giving it the names "evening star" and "morning star" (The word for "morning star" in Latin is Lucifer. Yes, really). Venus is also the brightest planet as seen from Mercury (where, at an apparent magnitude of -7.7, it is the brightest of ''any'' planet in our Solar System as seen from the surface of another)[[note]]Given that at its closest is seen in full phase, unlike as seen from Earth[[/note]] and even Mars (-3.2), despite Earth being both larger and nearer.

* In the Creator/{{Disney}} film ''Mars and Beyond'', one scene has the narrator describe the conditions of the other planets in the Solar System besides Mars, and when he gets to Venus he says [[FunnyAneurysmMoment "There may be life on Venus..."]]

[[caption-width-right:330:The Veiled Planet [[note]]Venus appears featureless in normal light — the picture is taken in the ultraviolet to show clouds[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:330:The Veiled Planet [[note]]Note Venus appears featureless in normal light — the picture is taken in the ultraviolet to show clouds[[/note]]]]

The second planet from {{UsefulNotes/the Sun}}, the closest planetary orbit to the Earth's. As seen from the Earth, it's often the brightest point of light in the night sky — in fact, if you know where to look, it can sometimes be seen even in full daylight. This brightness is partly due to how close it gets to the Earth, and partly due to its bright whitish cloud cover. Interestingly, Venus appears brightest when it's in its crescent phase, because it's much closer to the Earth at that point than it is when it's in its gibbous phase. (Venus can't be seen when it's full, of course, since the Sun is smack-dab between the Earth and the planet at that point.) Since Venus is never more than 40-some-odd degrees away from the Sun, it's most prominent right after sunset or right before sunrise, giving it the names "evening star" and "morning star" (The word for "morning star" in Latin is Lucifer. Yes, really). Venus is also the brightest planet as seen from Mercury (where, at an apparent magnitude of -7.7, it is the brightest of ''any'' planet in our Solar System as seen from the surface of another) and even Mars (-3.2), despite Earth being both larger and nearer.

The second planet from {{UsefulNotes/the Sun}}, the closest planetary orbit to the Earth's. As seen from the Earth, it's often the brightest point of light in the night sky — in fact, if you know where to look, it can sometimes be seen even in full daylight. This brightness is partly due to how close it gets to the Earth, and partly due to its bright whitish cloud cover. Interestingly, Venus appears brightest when it's in its crescent phase, because it's much closer to the Earth at that point than it is when it's in its gibbous phase. (Venus can't be seen when it's full, of course, since the Sun is smack-dab between the Earth and the planet at that point.) Since Venus is never more than 40-some-odd degrees away from the Sun, it's most prominent right after sunset or right before sunrise, giving it the names "evening star" and "morning star" (The word for "morning star" in Latin is Lucifer. Yes, really).

Besides the Moon, Venus is also the best place of the Solar System to see our planet. From there, Earth appears as a dazzling blue star that would be at its closest much brighter than Venus seen from our planet, large enough to appear as a disk with binoculars and even to the Mark I eyeball with sharp enough vision, and that with a telescope would give a lot of fun as weather patterns change and continents/oceans move below because of its rotation. UsefulNotes/TheMoon would appear almost as bright as we see UsefulNotes/{{Jupiter}}, and while looking much more dull than Earth it would contribute with still more fun for astronomers as the former orbits the latter and both bodies approached, moved away, and in some cases overlapped. Nice AlienSky, if all those clouds were not in the middle.