On a moonless night, the brightest object in the sky is Venus. To the ancient and unlearned skywatcher, Venus was called both Eosphorus (the morning star) and Hesperus (the evening star). Venus is the Roman goddess of love and beauty, a fitting name for the brightly shining "star." Upon closer inspection, Venus is covered in thick clouds of sulfuric acid which causes it to appear so bright and which also causes a massive greenhouse effect on it's surface which reaches temperatures of 400 degrees K to over 740 K. It is this shell of clouds which gives Venus it's reflective nature. It also makes it currently impossible to view the surface of the planet from space. Several spacecraft have penetrated the clouds to map the planet's surface. There may have once been water on Venus but it long since boiled away. Venus has often been called Earth's sister planet or even Earth's twin. Perhaps it once contained some form of life but in it's present orbit, it is simply too close to the sun.
Venus is portrayed by artist and model Zeldyn with additional images from NASA and APOD.
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