How is venus compared to earth

Although it's much less likely, another possibility considered by scientists who study astrobiology is that these streaks could be made up of microbial life, Venus-style. These handy chemical cloaks would also absorb potentially damaging ultraviolet light and re-radiate it as visible light. There is much, it would seem, that she can teach us.

Our nearness to Venus is a matter of perspective. The planet is nearly as big around as Earth — 7, miles 12, kilometers across, versus 7, miles 12, kilometers for Earth.

From Earth, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after our own Moon. The ancients, therefore, gave it great importance in their cultures, even thinking it was two objects: a morning star and an evening star. At its nearest to Earth, Venus is some 38 million miles about 61 million kilometers distant. One more trick of perspective: how Venus looks through binoculars or a telescope. The complete cycle, however, new to full, takes days, while our Moon takes just a month. And it was this perspective, the phases of Venus first observed by Galileo through his telescope, that provided the key scientific proof for the Copernican heliocentric nature of the Solar System.

Spending a day on Venus would be quite a disorienting experience — that is, if your ship or suit could protect you from temperatures in the range of degrees Fahrenheit Celsius. For another, because of the planet's extremely slow rotation, sunrise to sunset would take Earth days. And by the way, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east, because Venus spins backward compared to Earth.

In winter, the tilt means the rays are less direct. No such luck on Venus: Its very slight tilt is only three degrees, which is too little to produce noticeable seasons.

A critical question for scientists who search for life among the stars: How do habitable planets get their start? The close similarities of early Venus and Earth, and their very different fates, provide a kind of test case for scientists who study planet formation.

Similar size, similar interior structure, both harboring oceans in their younger days. Yet one is now an inferno, while the other is the only known world — so far — to play host to abundant life.

The factors that set these planets on almost opposite paths began, most likely, in the swirling disk of gas and dust from which they were born.

Somehow, 4. Several might well have moved in closer, or farther out, as the solar system formed. If we could slice Venus and Earth in half, pole to pole, and place them side by side, they would look remarkably similar. Each planet has an iron core enveloped by a hot-rock mantle; the thinnest of skins forms a rocky, exterior crust. On both planets, this thin skin changes form and sometimes erupts into volcanoes in response to the ebb and flow of heat and pressure deep beneath.

Other possible similarities will require further investigation — and perhaps another visit to a planet that has hosted many Earth probes, both in orbit and briefly on the surface. Subduction is believed to be the first step in creating plate tectonics.

Magellan saw a land of extreme volcanism. The orbiter saw a relatively young surface, one recently reshaped in geologic terms , and chains of towering mountains. The broiling surface of Venus has been a topic of heated discussion among planetary scientists.

The traditional picture includes a catastrophic, planetwide resurfacing between and million years ago. In other words, Venus appears to have completely erased most traces of its early surface. The causes: volcanic and tectonic forces, which could include surface buckling and massive eruptions. Earth actually has quite a thick atmosphere in comparison to Mercury and Mars, where it is almost non existent due to solar winds. Although we have sent spacecrafts to the planet, landing on Venus with a manned craft would be impossible.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. About Us. Privacy Policy. Skip to content. How big is Venus compared to Earth? This means that Venus is roughly 0. In terms of volume, the two planets are almost neck and neck, with Venus possessing 0. But when it comes to orbit, the two planets are a bit different. Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance semi-major axis of ,, km 92,, mi , ranging from ,, km 91,, mi at perihelion to ,, km 94,, mi at aphelion.

Venus, meanwhile, orbits the Sun at an average distance of ,, km , ranging from ,, km at perihelion to ,, km. Being terrestrial planets, Venus and Earth have similar structures and compositions. Whereas the core region consists of nickel and iron, the mantle and outer crust are composed of silicate rock and minerals.

Like that of Earth, the Venusian core is at least partially liquid because the two planets have been cooling at about the same rate.

The principal difference between the two planets is the lack of evidence for plate tectonics on Venus, possibly because its crust is too strong to subduct without water to make it less viscous. This results in reduced heat loss from the planet, preventing it from cooling.

Whereas the outer core is believed to consist of a low viscosity liquid, the inner core is believed to be solid. In fact, about The submerged surface has mountainous features, as well as undersea volcanoes, oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus and abyssal plains. The remaining portions of the surface are covered by mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other landforms. Over long periods, the surface undergoes reshaping due to a combination of tectonic activity and erosion.

Venus surface appears to have been shaped by volcanic activity rather than tectonic activity. Though Venus is not more volcanic ally active than Earth, its older crust means that it has several times as many volcanoes as Earth, with measuring over km across.