Venus

==                            Venus== Venus  is the second   planet  from the   Sun, orbiting it every 224.7   Earth  days. [11]   The planet is named after the   Roman  goddess  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">of love and beauty. After the Moon<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  apparent magnitude<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:1em;">[13] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">Because Venus is an inferior planet<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">from Earth, it never appears to venture far from the Sun: its <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  elongation<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.1875px;">reaches a maximum of 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it has been referred to by ancient cultures as the Morning Star or Evening Star.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Venus is classified as a terrestrial planet and is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" owing to their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). However, it has been shown to be very different from Earth in other respects. Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. It has the densestatmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of Earth's. With a mean surface temperature of  735 K   (462 °C; 863 °F), Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System. It has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor does it seem to have any organic life to absorb it in biomass. Venus may have possessed oceans in the past,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;">[14]  but these would have vaporized as the temperature rose due to the runaway greenhouse effect.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Jakosky_15-0" style="line-height:1em;">[15]  The water has most probably photodissociated, and, because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field, the free hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-solarwind_16-0" style="line-height:1em;">[16]  Venus's surface is a dry desertscape interspersed with slab-like rocks and periodically refreshed by volcanism.