Venus... Goddess of Love

Fiery Venus is a wonderful planet to look at, but you wouldn't want to live there! During the "Golden Age of Science Fiction" in the 1930's and 40's, Venus was a frequent setting for space adventure stories. After all, cloud-covered Venus is nearly the same size as Earth and it's only a little closer to the Sun than Earth is. Readers and writers alike fancied Venus as an enticing safari planet -- a steaming world-wide jungle filled with unknown and exotic creatures.

However, know that its surface temperature is about 860 degrees F (460 degrees C,) hot enough to melt lead! The atmospheric pressure is about 90 times that of Earth. You'd be crushed! And it rains sulfuric acid there. But here, from our Earth, we can see this beautiful sight safely from afar, looking due West. At this time of the year, it's the brightest star in the sky. This is about 8:30PM and this photo from my iPhone 4 does a decent job capturing this planet. If you click on the photo to look at the high resolution, you should also see Mars clustering to the left of Venus. Venus is setting about now, the time I publish this blog, at about 9:40PM.