CONTENTS VENUS THE HOTTEST PLANET 4 HOW BIG IS VENUS 6 INSIDE THE PLANET 8 ON THE SURFACE 10 VENUS’S THICK ATMOSPHERE 12 AROUND THE SUN 14 A STRANGE SPIN 16 ANCIENT OBSERVATIONS 18 EARLY STUDIES OF THE PLANET 20 FLYING BY VENUS 22 TOUCHDOWN 24 MAGELLAN AND THE VENUS EXPRESS 26 INTO THE FUTURE 28 GLOSSARY 30 FOR MORE INFORMATION 31 INDEX 32
4 VENUS THE HOTTEST PLANET Venus is one of the planets that orbit or travel around the sun in our solar system Venus is the second planet from the sun Its distance from the sun averages about 67 million miles 108 million kilometers Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system Like the planet Mercury Venus has no moon Venus is the bright est planet in the sky when viewed from Earth It is Venus can be seen in the night sky above Earth from the International Space Station
5 The solar system is made up of the sun and all of the planets moons asteroids and comets that travel around the sun VOCABULARY Earth’s nearest neighbor coming closer to Earth than any other planet Of all the planets in our solar system Venus is the most similar to Earth in size and other features This makes scientists think the two planets might have similar histories Today Earth and Venus are very different Scientists are hoping to someday find out why The Pioneer Venus Orbiter Pioneer 12 spacecraft took this photo of Venus in February 1979
