History UsefulNotes / Venus

* CharlesStross's ''Saturn's Children'' starts out in a city floating in Venus's atmosphere, then follows its FemBot protagonist through the rest of UsefulNotes/TheSolarSystem

* In ''LuckyStarr and the oceans of Venus'' by Creator/IsaacAsimov, Venus is an ocean planet with seas and kelp (and domed underwater cities).

These rather depressing details were revealed by the Soviet Venera space probes, sent to the planet in the late 1960s. Before that time, many ScienceFiction authors held out hope that Venus might harbor life. Such hope was flimsy at best even before the Venera space probes, though; as early as the 1890s, spectrographs of the Venusian atmosphere showed it to be made almost entirely of carbon dioxide, with ''no'' water vapor at all (meaning the clouds ''could not'' have been water clouds like those on Earth), and the temperature at the ''top'' of the cloud layer was known to be several hundred degrees Fahrenheit from the planet's blackbody radiation curve.

These rather depressing details were revealed by the Soviet Venera space probes, sent to the planet in the late 1960s. Before that time, many ScienceFiction authors held out hope that Venus might harbor life.

* The ArthurCClarke short story "Before Eden" (1961) recounts the tales of the first astronauts to land on Venus, who discover a carpet-like creature living there. They take pictures, then drop off their waste products and blast off. Unbeknownst to them, the creature finds their waste delectable, but has no immunity to the Earth bacteria within it and soon spreads deadly Earth germs to its entire species, [[DownerEnding wiping them all out]].

Well, for one, its surface temperature turned out to be nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than a self-cleaning oven. The "air" consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide, and at the surface the pressure is equal to being ''half a mile'' under the ocean on Earth. And those clouds? They're not made of water vapor, they're made of sulfuric acid. What was thought of "Earth's Twin" turned out to be Earth's EvilTwin and a BitchInSheepsClothing.

Well, for one, its surface temperature turned out to be nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than a self-cleaning oven. The "air" consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide, and at the surface the pressure is equal to being ''half a mile'' under the ocean on Earth. And those clouds? They're not made of water vapor, they're made of sulfuric acid.

Its surface features, long hidden under the constant cloud cover, were finally mapped by the Magellan space probe using radar in [[TheNineties the 1990s]]. The highest mountain is Maxwell Montes, almost 7 miles above the average surface level. If you stood on its peak, it'd be a downright chilly 380°C / 716°F, and a mere 60 atmospheres of pressure. 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[[hottip:* :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 vulcanism puncutated by the entire surface melting every 500 million years or so]]]]. Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space, 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.[[hottip:*: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]] There is some argument over whether the proper adjective is 'Venusian', 'Venerean', or 'Cytherean'.

* Immanuel Velikovsky proposed, based on his reading of certain ancient mythology, that Venus was originally spat out of Jupiter, and wandered through the inner solar system causing the parting of the Red Sea and [[TheBible Joshua 10:13]]'s sun-standing-still-in-the-sky episode, before settling into its current near-circular orbit.

* In ''{{Film/Contact}}'', Dr. Arroway tells her preacher beau that Venus was what convinced her to become an astronomer:

* In RobertHeinlein's ''Literature/SpaceCadet'', the titular cadets answer a Venusian DistressCall. Venus is depicted as the typical swamp planet of the pre-Venera wishful-thinking days.

Its surface features, long hidden under the constant cloud cover, were finally mapped by the Magellan space probe using radar in [[TheNineties the 1990s]]. The highest mountain is Maxwell Montes, almost 7 miles above the average surface level. If you stood on its peak, it'd be a downright chilly 380°C / 716°F, and a mere 60 atmospheres of pressure. 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 [[BeyondTheImpossible a super greenhouse effect]] with temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees[[hottip:* :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 vulcanism puncutated by the entire surface melting every 500 million years or so]]]]. Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space, 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.[[hottip:*: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]] There is some argument over whether the proper adjective is 'Venusian', 'Venerean', or 'Cytherean'.

* In ''LuckyStarr and the oceans of Venus'' by IsaacAsimov, Venus is an ocean planet with seas and kelp (and domed underwater cities).

* In CSLewis's ''[[TheSpaceTrilogy Perelandra]]'', Venus is a garden of Eden where original sin never occurred.

[[caption-width-right:330:Move along, nothing to see here]]

* An episode of ''TheTwilightZone'' features a man from UsefulNotes/{{Mars}} who gives superpowers to an earthman to see what he'll do with them. The earthman squanders his abilities, so the Martian brags about how pathetic Earthmen are to a patron in an Earth bar. It turns out the man listening to him is from Venus, and the Venusians are about to invade and conquer ''both'' Mars and Earth.

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

Venus used to be called "Earth's twin". It's almost as big as the Earth, it's got 90% of Earth's surface gravity, it's got an atmosphere with clouds in it, it's about the same distance from the sun -- what could be so different?

Venus used to be called "Earth's twin". It's almost as big as the Earth, it's got an atmosphere with clouds in it, it's about the same distance from the sun -- what could be so different?

At some point in the planet's early history, some big huge honkin' planetessimal struck it at an oblique angle, causing it to rotate very slowly ''backwards'' when compared with all the other planets in the Solar system. As a result of this super-slow rotation, a Venusian solar day is nearly as long as a Venusian year. Not that you'd be able to ''see'' much difference between day and night while on the surface. The super-thick atmosphere bends light so severely that the horizon appears to curve ''upward'', allowing you to see all the way around the planet. Twice. 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.

* Immanuel Velikovsky proposed, based on his reading of certain ancient mythology, that Venus was originally spat out of Jupiter, and wandered through the inner solar system causing the parting of the Red Sea and [[TheBible Joshua]]'s sun-standing-still-in-the-sky episode, before settling into its current near-circular orbit.

* An older ArthurCClarke short story recounts the tales of the first astronauts to land on Venus, who discover a carpet-like creature living there. They take pictures, then drop off their waste products and blast off. Unbeknownst to them, the creature finds their waste delectable, but has no immunity to the Earth bacteria within it and soon spreads deadly Earth germs to its entire species, [[DownerEnding wiping them all out]].