Planet Venus

Venus and Earth are similar in size, mass, density, composition, and distance from the sun. There, however, is where the similarities
end.

Venus is covered by a thick, rapidly spinning atmosphere, creating a scorched world with temperatures hot enough to melt lead and a
surface pressure 90 times that of Earth. Because of its proximity to Earth and the way its clouds reflect sunlight, Venus appears to be
the brightest planet in the sky.

Like Mercury, Venus can be seen periodically passing across the face of the sun. These transits occur in pairs, with more than a
century separating each pair. Since the telescope was invented, transits have been observed in 1631, 1639; 1761, 1769; and 1874,
1882. On June 8, 2004, astronomers worldwide saw the tiny dot of Venus crawl across the sun; the second in this pair of early 21st-
century transits will occur June 6, 2012.

Toxic Atmosphere

Venus's atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide, with clouds of sulfuric acid droplets. Only trace amounts of water have been
detected in the atmosphere. The thick atmosphere traps the sun's heat, resulting in surface temperatures over 880 degrees Fahrenheit
(470 degrees Celsius). Probes that have landed on Venus have not survived more than a few hours before being destroyed by the
incredibly high temperatures.

The Venusian year (orbital period) is about 225 Earth days long, while the planet's rotation period is 243 Earth days, making a Venus
day about 117 Earth days long. Venus rotates retrograde (east to west) compared with Earth's prograde (west to east) rotation. Seen
from Venus, the sun would rise in the west and set in the east. As Venus moves forward in its solar orbit while slowly rotating
"backwards" on its axis, the cloud-level atmosphere zips around the planet in the opposite direction from the rotation every four Earth
days, driven by constant hurricane-force winds. How this atmospheric "super rotation" forms and is maintained continues to be a topic
of scientific investigation.

About 90 percent of the surface of Venus appears to be recently solidified basalt lava; it is thought that the planet was completely
resurfaced by volcanic activity 300 million to 500 million years ago.

Sulfur compounds, possibly attributable to volcanic activity, are abundant in Venus's clouds. The corrosive chemistry and dense,
moving atmosphere cause significant surface weathering and erosion. Radar images of the surface show wind streaks and sand
dunes. Craters smaller than 0.9 to 1.2 miles (1.5 to 2 kilometers) across do not exist on Venus, because small meteors burn up in the
dense atmosphere before they can reach the surface.

Geological Features

More than a thousand volcanoes or volcanic centers larger than 12 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter dot the surface of Venus. Volcanic
flows have produced long, sinuous channels extending for hundreds of kilometers.

Venus has two large highland areas: Ishtar Terra, about the size of Australia, in the north polar region, and Aphrodite Terra, about the
size of South America, straddling the equator and extending for almost 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers). Maxwell Montes, the highest
mountain on Venus and comparable to Mount Everest on Earth, is at the eastern edge of Ishtar Terra.

Venus has an iron core about 1,200 miles (3,000 kilometers) in radius. Venus has no global magnetic field; though its core iron content
is similar to that of Earth, Venus rotates too slowly to generate the type of magnetic field that Earth has.
Earth
Earth, our home, is the third planet from the sun. It is the only planet known to
have an atmosphere containing free oxygen, oceans of liquid water on its surface,
and, of course, life.

Earth is the fifth largest of the planets in the solar system — smaller than the
four gas giants,Jupiter, Saturn, UranusandNeptune, but larger than the three other rocky
planets,Mercury, Marsand Venus.

Earth has a diameter of roughly 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers), and is round
because gravity pulls matter into a ball, although it is not perfectly round, instead
being more of an "oblate spheroid" whose spin causes it to be squashed at its
poles and swollen at the equator.

Roughly 71 percent of Earth's surface is covered by water, most of it in the

oceans. About a fifth of Earth's atmosphereis made up of oxygen, produced by plants.
While scientists have been studying our planet for centuries, much has been
learned in recent decades by studying pictures of Earth from space.
Orbital characteristics
Earth spins on an imaginary line called an axis that runs from the North Pole to
the South Pole, while also orbiting the sun. It takes Earth 23.439 hours to
complete a rotation on its axis, and roughly 365.26 days to complete an orbit
around the sun.

Earth's axis of rotation is tilted in relation to the ecliptic plane, an imaginary

surface through Earth's orbit around the sun. This means the northern and
southern hemispheres will sometimes point toward or away from the sun
depending on the time of year, varying the amount of light they receive and
causing the seasons.

Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle, but is rather an oval-shaped ellipse, like that
of the orbits of all the other planets. Earth is a bit closer to the sun in early
January and farther away in July, although this variation has a much smaller
effect than the heating and cooling caused by the tilt of Earth's axis. Earth
happens to lie within the so-called "Goldilocks zone" around its star, where
temperatures are just right to maintain liquid water on its surface.

Orbit & rotation

Some statistics about Earth, according to NASA:
 Average distance from the sun: 92,956,050 miles (149,598,262 km)
 Perihelion (closest approach to the sun): 91,402,640 miles (147,098,291 km)
 Aphelion (farthest distance from the sun): 94,509,460 miles (152,098,233 km)
 Length of solar day (single rotation on its axis): 23.934 hours
 Length of year (single revolution around the sun): 365.26 days
 Equatorial inclination to orbit: 23.4393 degrees

Earth's formation and evolution

Scientists think Earth was formed at roughly the same time as the sun and other
planets some 4.6 billion years ago, when the solar system coalesced from a giant,
rotating cloud of gas and dust known as the solar nebula. As the nebula collapsed
because of its gravity, it spun faster and flattened into a disk. Most of the
material was pulled toward the center to form the sun.
Other particles within the disk collided and stuck together to form ever-larger bodies,
including Earth. The solar wind from the sun was so powerful that it swept away
most of the lighter elements, such as hydrogen and helium, from the innermost
worlds, rendering Earth and its siblings into small, rocky planets.
Scientists think Earth started off as a waterless mass of rock. Radioactive materials in
the rock and increasing pressure deep within the Earth generated enough heat to
melt Earth's interior, causing some chemicals to rise to the surface and form
water, while others became the gases of the atmosphere. Recent evidence
suggests that Earth's crust and oceans may have formed within about 200 million
years after the planet had taken shape.
The history of Earth is divided into four eons — starting with the earliest, these
are the Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic and Phanerozoic. The first three eons,
which together lasted nearly 4 billion years, are together known as thePrecambrian.
Evidence for life has been found in the Archaean about 3.8 billion years ago, but
life did not become abundant until the Phanerozoic.
The Phanerozoic is divided into three eras — starting with the earliest, these are
the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. The Paleozoic Era saw the development of
many kinds of animals and plants in the seas and on land, theMesozoic Era was the
age of dinosaurs, and the Cenozoic Era we are in currently is the age of mammals.

Most of the fossils seen in Paleozoic rocks are invertebrate animals lacking
backbones, such as corals, mollusks and trilobites. Fish are first found about 450
million years ago, while amphibians appear roughly 380 million years ago. By 300
million years ago, large forests and swamps covered the land, and the earliest
fossils of reptiles appear during this period as well.

The Mesozoic saw the ascendence of dinosaurs, although mammals also appear in the
fossil record about 200 million years ago. During this time, flowering plants
became the dominant plant group and continue to be so today.

The Cenozoic began about 65 million years ago with the end of the age of
dinosaurs, which many scientists think was caused by a cosmic impact.
Mammals survived to become the dominant land animals of today.

Composition & structure

Atmosphere
Earth's atmosphere is roughly 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, with trace
amounts of water, argon, carbon dioxide and other gases. Nowhere else in the
solar system can one find an atmosphere loaded with free oxygen, which
ultimately proved vital to one of the other unique features of Earth — us.
Air surrounds Earth and becomes thinner farther from the surface. Roughly 100
miles (160 km) above Earth, the air is so thin that satellites can zip through with
little resistance. Still, traces of atmosphere can be found as high as 370 miles
(600 km) above the surface.

The lowest layer of the atmosphere is known as the troposphere, which is

constantly in motion, causing the weather. Sunlight heats the planet's surface,
causing warm air to rise. This air ultimately expands and cools as air pressure
decreases, and because this cool air is denser than its surroundings, it then
sinks, only to get warmed by the Earth once again.

Above the troposphere, some 30 miles (48 km) above the Earth's surface, is the
stratosphere. The still air of the stratosphere contains the ozone layer, which was
created when ultraviolet light caused trios of oxygen atoms to bind together into
ozone molecules. Ozone prevents most of the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation
from reaching Earth's surface.

Water vapor, carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere trap heat from
the sun, warming Earth. Without this so-called "greenhouse effect," Earth would
probably be too cold for life to exist, although a runaway greenhouse effect led to
the hellish conditions now seen on Venus.

Earth-orbiting satellites have shown that the upper atmosphere actually expands
during the day and contracts at night due to heating and cooling.

Magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field is generated by currents flowing in Earth's outer core. The
magnetic poles are always on the move, with the magnetic North Pole recently
accelerating its northward motion to 24 miles (40 km) annually, likely exiting
North America and reaching Siberia in a few decades.
Earth's magnetic field is changing in other ways, too — globally, the magnetic
field has weakened 10 percent since the 19th century, according to NASA.These changes
are mild compared to what Earth's magnetic field has done in the past —
sometimes the field completely flips, with the north and the south poles swapping
places.
When charged particles from the sun get trapped in Earth's magnetic field, they
smash into air molecules above the magnetic poles, causing them to glow, a
phenomenon known as the aurorae, the northern and southern lights.
Chemical composition
Oxygen is the most abundant element in rocks in Earth's crust, composing roughly
47 percent of the weight of all rock. The second most abundant element
is silicon at 27 percent, followed by aluminum at 8 percent, iron at 5
percent, calcium at 4 percent, and sodium, potassium, and magnesium at about 2
percent each.
Earth's core consists mostly of iron and nickel and potentially smaller amounts of
lighter elements such as sulfur and oxygen. The mantle is made of iron and
magnesium-rich silicate rocks. (The combination of silicon and oxygen is known
as silica, and minerals that contain silica are known as silicate minerals.)
Internal structure
Earth's core is about 4,400 miles (7,100 km) wide, slightly larger than half the
Earth's diameter and roughly the size of Mars. The outermost 1,400 miles (2,250
km) of the core are liquid, while the inner core — about four-fifths as big as
Earth's moon at some 1,600 miles (2,600 km) in diameter — is solid.

Above the core is Earth's mantle, which is about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) thick.
The mantle is not completely stiff, but can flow slowly. Earth's crust floats on the
mantle much as a wood floats on water, and the slow motion of rock in the
mantle shuffles continents around and causes earthquakes, volcanoes, and the
formation of mountain ranges.

Above the mantle, Earth has two kinds of crust. The dry land of the continents
consists mostly of granite and other light silicate minerals, while the ocean floors
are made up mostly of a dark, dense volcanic rock called basalt. Continental
crust averages some 25 miles (40 km) thick, although it can be thinner or thicker
in some areas. Oceanic crust is usually only about 5 miles (8 km) thick. Water fills
in low areas of the basalt crust to form the world's oceans. Earth has more than
enough water to completely fill the ocean basins, and the rest of it spreads onto
edges of the continents, areas known as the continental shelf.

Earth gets warmer toward its core. At the bottom of the continental crust,
temperatures reach about 1,800 degrees F (1,000 degrees C), increasing about 3
degrees F per mile (1 degree C per kilometer) below the crust. Geologists think
the temperature of Earth's outer core is about 6,700 to 7,800 degrees F (3,700 to
4,300 degrees C), and the inner core may reach 12,600 degrees F (7,000 degrees
C), hotter than the surface of the sun. Only the enormous pressures found at the
super-hot inner core keep it solid.
Recent exoplanet surveys such as NASA’s Kepler mission suggest that Earth-size
planets are common throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Nearly a fourth of sun-like
stars observed by Kepler have potentially habitable Earth-size planets.

Earth's moon
Earth's moon is 2,159 miles (3,474 km) wide, about one-fourth of Earth's diameter.
Earth has one moon, while Mercury and Venus have none and all the other planets
in our solar system have two or more.
The leading explanation for how the moon formed was that a giant impact knocked off
the raw ingredients for the moon off the primitive molten Earth and into orbit.
Scientists have suggested the impactor was roughly 10 percent the mass of
Earth, about the size of Mars.

Species overview
Earth is the only planet in the universe known to possess life. There are several
million known species of life, ranging from the bottom of the deepest ocean to a
few miles into the atmosphere, and scientists think far more remain to be
discovered. Scientists figure there are between 5 million and 100 millionspecies on
Earth, but science has only identified about 2 million of them.
Earth is the only body in the solar system known to host life, although scientists
suspect that other candidates — such as Saturn’s moon Titan or Jupiter’s moon
Europa — have the potential to house primitive living creatures. Scientists have
yet to precisely nail down exactly how complex life rapidly evolved on Earth from
more primitive ancestors. One solution suggests that life first evolved on the
nearby planet Mars, once a habitable planet, then traveled to Earth
on meteorites hurled from the Red Planet.

FACTS ABOUT MARS

 Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and last of the terrestrial planets and is
around 227,940,000 km from the Sun.
 The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It was known to the
ancient Greeks as Ares, their god of war. This is thought to be because of the blood-
red color of the planet which was also used by other ancient cultures. Chinese
astronomers call Mars the “fire star” while ancient Egyptian priests called it “Her
Desher” meaning “the red one”.
 The landmass of Mars and Earth is very similar.Despite Mars being just 15% the
volume and 10% the mass of Earth, it actually has a similar landmass because water
covers about 70% of Earth’s surface. The surface gravity of Mars is about 37% the
gravity found on Earth. This means that on Mars you could in theory jump 3x higher
than you could on Earth.
 Only 16 of the 39 Mars missions have been successful.Beginning with the
USSR’s Marsnik 1 which was launched in 1960, 39 orbiters, landers and rovers have
been to Mars but only 16 of those missions were a success. In 2016, Europe’s
 Exobiology on Mars program will search the planet for signs of Martian life as well as
study the surface and terrain of the planet and map potential environmental hazards
to future manned missions to Mars.
 Pieces of Mars have been found on Earth. It is believed that trace amounts of the
Martian atmosphere were within meteorites that the planet ejected. These meteorites
then orbited the solar system for millions of years amongst the other objects and
solar debris before eventually entering the Earth’s atmosphere and crashing to the
ground. The study of this material has allowed scientists to discover more about Mars
before launching space missions.
 Mars was once believed to be home to intelligent life. This came from the
discovery of lines or grooves in the surface called canali by Italian astronomer
Giovanni Schiaparelli. He believed that these were not naturally occurring and were
proof of intelligent life. However, these were later shown to be an optical illusion.
 The tallest mountain known in the solar system is on Mars. Olympus Mons is a
21 km high and 600 km diameter shield volcano that was formed billions of years
ago. Scientists have found a lot of recent evidence of volcanic lava which suggests
Olympus Mons may still be active. It is the second highest mountain in the entire
solar system, topped only by the Rheasilvia central peak on the asteroid Vesta,
which is 22 km high.
 Mars experiences huge dust storms – the largest in our solar system. This is
due to the elliptical shape of the planet’s orbit path around the Sun. The orbit path is
more elongated than many of the other planets and this oval shaped orbit results in
fierce dust storms that cover the entire planet and can last for many months.
 The Sun looks about half its size half it does from Earth when seen from
Mars. When Mars is closest to the Sun in its orbit the southern hemisphere points
toward the Sun and this causes a very short but fiercely hot summer. In the north it
experiences a brief but cold winter. When the planet is farthest from the Sun, Mars
experiences a long and mild summer because the northern hemisphere points
toward the Sun. This is compared with a cold and lengthy winter in the south.
 With the exception of Earth, Mars is the most hospitable to life – a number of
space missions are planning for the next decade the further increase our
understanding of Mars and when it has the potential for extraterrestrial life, as well as
whether it may be a viable planet for a colony.
 Martians, also known as extraterrestrials from Mars, are a common character in
science fiction books and movies. This makes Mars one of the most popular and
talked about planets in the solar system.
 It takes Mars 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun with its orbit radius of 227,840,000
km.
  Mars is the only other planet besides Earth that has polar ice caps. The northern
cap is called the Planum Boreum, with Planum Australe in the south. Water ice has
also been found under the Martian ice caps.
 Mars has seasons like Earth, but they last twice as long. This is because Mars is
tilted on its axis by about 25.19 degrees, which is similar to the axial tilt of the Earth
(22.5 degrees).
 The orbit of Mars is the most eccentric of the eight planets. This means it is the
least circular orbit path of the planets.
 The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, were written about in the book
‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by author Jonathan Swift – 151 years before they were
discovered.
 Mars does not have a magnetic field – although there are some scientists that
believe it did have a magnetic field somewhere around 4 billion years ago.

MORE INFORMATION AND FACTS ABOUT MARS

It was believed life existed on Mars for much of the nineteenth century. The reason behind
this belief was part mistake and part imagination. In 1877, the astronomer Giovanni
Schiaparelliobserved what he believed to be straight lines on Mars’ surface. As others
noticed these lines, some suggested that they were too straight and could only be the
work of intelligent life. The popular conclusion as to the nature of these lines was that they
were canals constructed for irrigation purposes. However, with the development of more
powerful telescopes in the early twentieth century, astronomers were able to view the
Martian surface more clearly and determine that these straight lines were merely an
optical illusion. As a result, the earlier claims of life on Marswere without evidence and,
therefore, discarded.

The large amount of science fiction written during the twentieth century was a direct
outgrowth of the belief that Mars possessed life. From little green men to death rays,
Martians were the focus of many television and radio programs, comic books, movies, and
novels.

Although the discovery of Martian life in the eighteenth century eventually proved to be
false, Mars is nonetheless the planet most hospitable for life other than the Earth. As
such, recent planetary missions have tried to determine if even the most basic of life exists
on the planet’s surface. The Viking mission in the 1970s conducted experiments on the
Martian soil in hopes of detecting microorganisms. While it was initially believed that the
formation of compounds during the experiments were a result of biological agents, it has
since been determined that these compounds can be created without biological
mechanisms.
Even though the results lean toward the absence of life on Mars, scientists have
speculated that conditions are right for life to exist beneath the planet’s surface. Future
planetary missions scheduled to test the possibility of past and present life include
the Mars Science Laboratory and ExoMars missions.

ATMOSPHERE
The composition of Mars’ atmosphere is extremely similar to Venus’, one of the least
hospitable atmospheres in all of the Solar System. The main component in both
atmospheres is carbon dioxide (95% for Mars, 97% for Venus), yet a runaway greenhouse
effect has taken hold of Venus, producing temperatures in excess of 480° C, while
temperatures on Mars never exceed 20° C. Thus, something other than the composition is
at work. The huge difference lies in the density of the two atmospheres. Whereas Venus’
atmosphere is exceedingly thick, Mars’ is quite thin. Simply put, Mars would resemble
Venus if it possessed a thicker atmosphere.

Additionally, with such a thin atmosphere, the resulting atmospheric pressure is only about
1% of that found at sea level on Earth. That is the equivalent pressure found at 35
km above the Earth’s surface.

One of the long standing areas of research regarding the Martian atmosphere is its impact
on the presence of liquid water. What the research has shown is that even though the
polar caps possess frozen water and the air contains water vapor&#8212as a result of the
freezing temperatures and low pressure caused by the weak atmosphere&#8212it is not
possible for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. However, evidence provided by
planetary missions suggests liquid water does exist one meter below the planet’s surface.

Surprisingly, despite the thin atmosphere, Mars experiences weather patterns. The
primary form of this weather consists of winds, with other manifestations that include dust
storms, frost, and fog. As a result of this weather, some erosion has been seen to take
place at particular locations on the planet’s surface.

As a final note on the Martian atmosphere, leading theories claim that it may have once
been dense enough to support large oceans of water. However, through some means in
the planet’s past the atmosphere was drastically altered. One popular explanation for this
change is that Mars was struck by a large body and in the process a large portion of its
atmosphere was ejected into space.

SURFACE
The surface of Mars can be separated into two broad features, which, coincidentally, are
divided by the planet’s hemisphere. The northern hemisphere is seen to be relatively
smooth with few craters, whereas the southern hemisphere is an area of highlands that
are more heavily cratered than the northern plains. Other than topographical differences,
the distinguishing feature of the two regions appears to be geological activity, with the
northen plains being much more active.

The Martian surface is home to both the largest known volcano,Olympus Mons, and
largest known canyon, Valles Marineris, in the Solar System. With a height of 25 km and
a base diameter of 600 km, Olympus Mons is three times the height of Mt. Everest, the
tallest mountain on the Earth. Valles Marineris is4,000 km long, 200 km wide, and
almost 7 km deep. To put the shear magnitude of its size into perspective, Valles
Marineris would stretch from the East to West coast of the United States.

Perhaps the most significant discovery regarding the Martian surface was the presence of
channels. What is so meaningful about these channels is that they appear to have been
created by running water, and thus providing evidence to support the theory that Mars
could have been much more similar to the Earth at one time.

A surface feature that has remained in popular culture since its image surfaced is the
“Face on Mars.” When this photograph was captured by the Viking I spacecraft in 1976,
many took it to be proof that alien life existed on Mars. However, subsequent images
showed that lighting (and a little imagination) are what brought life to the formation.

INTERIOR
Similar to the other terrestrial planets, Mars’ interior is divided into three layers: a crust,
mantle, and core.

Although precise measurements cannot be made, scientists can make predictions as to

the thickness of the planet’s crust based on the depth of Valles Marineris. Such a deep,
extensive valley system, located in the southern hemisphere, could not be present unless
the crust there is significantly thicker than the Earth’s. Estimates put its thickness in the
northern hemisphere at35 km, and 80 km in the southern hemisphere.

Mercury’s core is believed to be approximately 3,000 km in diameter and composed

primarily of iron. There is a significant amount of research being conducted to determine
whether or not Mars’ core is solid. Some scientists point to the lack of a significant
magnetic field as an indication that the core is solid. However, within the past decade
much data has been gathered to indicate that the core is at least partially liquid. With the
discovery of magnetized rocks on the planet’s surface, it appears, at the very least, that
Mars did possess a liquid core at some point in its history.

ORBIT & ROTATION

The orbit of Mars is noteworthy for three reasons. First, its eccentricity is second largest
among all the planets, smaller only than Mercury’s. As a result of this more elliptical orbit,
Mars’ perihelion of 2.07 x 108 km is much larger than its aphelion of2.49 x 108 km. Second,
evidence suggests that this high degree of eccentricity has not always been present, and
it may have been less than the Earth’s at some point in Mars’ history. The cause for this
change is attributed to the gravitational forces exerted upon Mars by neighboring planets.
Third, of all the terrestrial planets, Mars is the only one having a year that lasts longer than
the Earth’s. This, of course, is due to its orbital distance. One Martian year is equal to
almost 686 Earth days.

It takes Mars about 24 hours 40 minutes to complete one full rotation, easily making the
Martian day the closest in length to an Earth day.

At roughly 25°, Mars’ axial tilt is yet another similarity the planet shares with Earth. What
this means is Mars actually experiences seasons like those on Earth, though each is
substantially longer because of the orbital distance of Mars. Unlike the Earth, however,
Mars’ two hemispheres experience quite different temepratures for each season. This is
due to the much larger eccentricity of the planet’s orbit.