Venus Facts
- The planet is named for Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
- To the Teutonic peoples, the planet was known as Frig, the goddess wife of Woden. Friday (Frigdaeg) is named for her.
- Venus is about the same size as Earth.
- Venus rotates in a retrograde (backward) direction.
- At its closest, Venus is only 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) from Earth.
- Venus has a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Atmospheric pressure at the surface is 90 times that of Earth.
- Because Venus is nearer the Sun than Earth and has a very thick atmosphere, the surface temperature is extremely high, as much as 475° Celsius (900 ° Farenheit).
| Mean distance from the Sun: | 0.7233 AU (108,200,000 km/67,230,000 mi) |
| Length of year: | 225 days |
| Rotation period: | 243 days (retrograde) |
| Mean orbital velocity: | 35 km/sec (21.8 mi/sec) |
| Inclination of axis: | 177.3° |
| Diameter: | 12,102 km (7520 mi) |
| Number of observed satellites: | 0 |
| Comparisons with Earth: | |
| Mean distance from Sun: | 0.723 x Earth's |
| Diameter: | 0.95 x Earth's |
| Mass: | 0.81 x Earth's |
| Density: | 0.9 x Earth's |
All information and images on this page were obtained from the National Air and Space Museum.