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15 Minute Science -- Venus
by
palantir
for
SciTech
Community
(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Sunday, Apr. 29, 2012
Sunday, Apr. 29, 2012
at
7:40:03pm PDT
Welcome again!
This week we have a special treat, at least if your skies are clear and your vision sharp. Of course, being Kossacks we can see for miles and miles and...
I Can See For Miles
The Who
Oh, the treat? Over the half-shell...
The planet Venus will be at its brightest over the next few days. If you're lucky and the weather cooperates you should be able to see Venus as the extremely bright star in the western sky just after sunset. Below is a star chart of the western sky to help you locate where to look.
Full Sized Sky Map
Venus, like the Moon, goes through phases where the Sun only illuminates a portion of the surface as viewed from Earth. Currently Venus is moving closer to the Earth in its orbit around the Sun, but as it gets closer to Earth the portion of the surface facing the Sun gets smaller for our point of view. This week Venus crosses the point of closest approach with maximal phase.
If you have a telescope you can actually see the crescent shape of Venus. It will appear as a 5 day old Moon
Space.com
It will appear featureless as it is covered by thick cloud cover. It's not a hospitable planet as it's atmosphere is over 95% carbon dioxide with a surface pressure some of 90 atmospheres. The mean temperature on the surface is a balmy 460° C (860° F).
Atmospheric composition
at surface level
Major components
(by volume)
96.5% carbon dioxide (CO
2
)
3.5% nitrogen (N
2
)
Minor components
(parts per million)
150 sulfur dioxide (SO
2
)
70 argon (Ar)
20 water vapor (H
2
O)
17 carbon monoxide (CO)
12 helium (He)
7 neon (Ne)
Surface pressure
92 bars
Surface density
~65 kg/m
3
Surface wind speeds
>0.3-1.0 m/s
© 2005 Pearson Prentice Hall, Inc.
The Encyclopedia of Science
Here are two NASA films on the exploration of Venus over the years.
Part 1
Part 2
I hope you enjoyed tonight's 15 Minute Science and maybe learned something too. Thanks for taking the time.