Venus Transit: A Venus transit is a rare event where Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, appearing as a small dot on the Sun's surface. This occurs in pairs separated by over a century. The last pair was in 2004 and 2012, and the next is expected in 2117 and 2125.

Extreme Atmosphere: Venus has a thick, acidic cloud cover and an incredibly hot surface, making it the hottest planet in the solar system.

Retrograde Rotation: Venus rotates in the opposite direction (retrograde) compared to most planets, including Earth, a unique characteristic in our solar system.

Venus was the first planet to be explored by a spacecraft – NASA’s Mariner 2 successfully flew by and scanned the cloud-covered world on Dec. 14, 1962. Since then, numerous spacecraft from the U.S. and other space agencies have explored Venus, including NASA’s Magellan, which mapped the planet's surface with radar. Soviet spacecraft made the most successful landings on the surface of Venus to date, but they didn’t survive long due to the extreme heat and crushing pressure. An American probe, one of NASA's Pioneer Venus Multiprobes, survived for about an hour after impacting the surface in 1978.

Origin: Venus formed about 4.6 billion years ago, around the same time as the rest of the solar system.

Discovery: Venus is one of the five planets visible to the naked eye from Earth and has been known since ancient times. It was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

History: Venus has been observed and studied for centuries, but its thick cloud cover made it challenging to understand its surface until the advent of space exploration.

Orbit Eccentricity: 0.007

Orbit length: The average distance from the Sun to Venus is about 67.24 million miles (108.2 million kilometers).

Rotation:

• Venus rotates very slowly and in the opposite direction to most planets (retrograde rotation). It rotates on its axis once every 243 Earth days.
• Venus rotates on its axis backward, compared to most of the other planets in the solar system. This means that, on Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east, opposite to what we experience on Earth. (It’s not the only planet in our solar system with such an oddball rotation – Uranus spins on its side.)

Rotation length: Venus has an extremely slow rotation, taking approximately 243 Earth days to complete one rotation on its axis.

Length of Day: 243 Earth days.

Length of Year: Time to orbit the Sun is about 225 Earth days.

Escape Velocity: 10.36 km/s

Distance from Sun in AU (Astronomical Unit): 0.72AU

Spherical Specification: Venus is a nearly spherical planet, but it has a slight bulge at its equator due to its slow rotation.

Moon/natural Satellites: Venus does not have any natural satellites (moons).

Rings: Venus does not have any rings.

Gravity: 0.91

Mass: The mass of Venus is approximately 4.87 x 10^24 kilograms, which is about 81.5% of Earth's mass.

Composition/Structure: Crust, Inner core, Outer core, Mantle: Venus has a crust, mantle, and likely a molten outer core. However, the exact composition and structure are not as well-known as Earth's due to the difficulty of studying Venus' surface.

Missions: Several missions have been sent to Venus, including the Soviet Venera and Vega missions, as well as NASA's Magellan and more recent missions like the European Space Agency's Venus Express and NASA's Parker Solar Probe which has performed flybys of Venus.

Temperature: Venus has an extremely hot surface temperature due to its thick atmosphere, which traps heat. The average temperature on Venus' surface is around 467 °C (872 °F), which is hotter than the surface of Mercury despite being further from the Sun.

Magnetic Field: Venus has a very weak magnetic field. Unlike Earth, Venus does not have a global magnetic field generated by a liquid outer core.

North Pole: Venus, like most planets, has polar regions. However, the exact features and characteristics of its poles are not as well-studied as those of Earth.

South Pole: Similarly to the North Pole, the characteristics of Venus' South Pole are not as extensively studied as Earth's.

Geological environment/Activity (Volcanic, ice, water, Storm, crater): Venus is thought to have a geologically active past with extensive volcanic activity. It may also have some areas with ice, but this is mostly speculative. Venus experiences extreme atmospheric storms, and its surface is marked by numerous impact craters.

Atmosphere:

• Venus has a thick and dense atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide (about 96.5%) with trace amounts of other gases. It also contains clouds of sulfuric acid.
• Venus has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and it’s perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect. It’s the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. Surface temperatures on Venus are about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius) – hot enough to melt lead. The surface is a rusty color and it’s peppered with intensely crunched mountains and thousands of large volcanoes. Scientists think it’s possible some volcanoes are still active.
• Venus has crushing air pressure at its surface – more than 90 times that of Earth – similar to the pressure you'd encounter a mile below the ocean on Earth.

Size: Venus has a diameter of approximately 12,104 kilometers (7,521 miles), which is about 95% of Earth's diameter.