For years, space scientists have called Venus by a very mysterious nickname “Earth’s evil twin.”
Venus, Earth’s “neighbor” planet, is the second closest planet to the Sun in the Solar System, after Mercury.
Despite being the closest planet to Earth, what we know about Venus is still too limited. With a surface temperature of up to 482 degrees Celsius, approaching and studying this planet is still a difficult challenge for humanity. Let’s take a look at some interesting mysteries about the brightest star in our sky, after the Sun and Moon. Venus turns retrograde
When viewed from the Sun’s north pole, all the planets in the Solar System rotate in a counterclockwise direction, and nearly all rotate in the same direction on their axis, with the exception of Venus. According to NASA, Venus rotates in the opposite direction compared to other planets. In a word, on Venus, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
Science News suggests that this retrograde rotation of Venus is most likely caused by a cosmic collision in the planet’s history. In the early Solar System, many planets collided with each other before entering stable orbits like today. With data from future lander probes, scientists hope to learn more about the structure and composition of Venus, as well as what causes the planet’s retrograde motion. The bad weather
Experts dubbed Venus the “evil twin” of Earth. Venus is the planet closest to our own in terms of size, composition and orbital position that we know of. Scientists believe that historically, this planet was very similar to Earth. However, within a few billion years, a greenhouse effect changed this. Since the distance from Venus to the Sun is only two-thirds of the distance from the Sun to the Earth, the amount of light it receives is much larger. The additional heat leads to an increase in water evaporation and causes the steam to retain more heat.
Over the long term, this evaporated even the seas of Venus and caused the planet to have its current high temperature. Scientists are studying when this happens on Venus in order to simulate it on Earth’s climate to avoid the same thing happening to us. Days on Venus are very long
According to Science Times, a day on Venus is as long as 243 days on Earth. According to CalTech, winds at the top of Venus’ atmosphere can reach 360km/h, or nearly 60 times the planet’s rotational speed. If similar gusts were to blow over Earth, Space.com says equatorial cloud winds would reach a staggering 9,650km/h. Energy from sunlight must eventually drive superrotation in Venus’s atmosphere, but the complete mechanics of this phenomenon are still unknown.
Over the next ten years, NASA plans to launch two additional investigations into Venus, the Da Vinci+ plan and the Veritas plan. Scientists are currently working to find out the secrets and links of this twin to Earth to increase understanding and make backup plans if necessary for the planet. our.
