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Venus
Venus is the second planet from
the Sun and it is named after the Roman goddess
Venus. Venus is sometimes called as earth’s”
sister planet", as the two are very similar
in size and bulk composition. While all planets'
orbits are elliptical, Venus's orbit is the closest
to circular, with an eccentricity of less than
1%. Venus is nearer to the Sun than the Earth,
for all time it appears roughly the similar direction
from Earth as the Sun (the greatest elongation
is 47.8°), hence Earth it can be seen usually
a few hours prior to sunrise or a few hours after
sunset.Venus is the one among the two heavenly
bodies that can be seen both day and night (the
other being the Moon). It is sometimes referred
to as the "Morning Star" or the "Evening
Star", and when it is visible in dark skies
it is by far the brightest star-like object in
the sky.
The cycle between
one maximum elongation and the next lasts
584 days. After these 584 days Venus is
visible in a position 72 degrees away from
the previous one. Since 5 * 584 = 2920,
this is equivalent to 8 * 365 Venus returns
to the same point in the sky every 8 years
(minus two leap days). This was known as
the Sothis cycle in ancient Egypt. Another
association is with the Moon, because 2920
days equal almost exactly 99 lunation (29.5
* 99 = 2920.5). |
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Venus was well-known to ancient
Babylonians around 1600 BC, and to the Mayan civilization
(the Mayans developed a religious calendar based
on Venus's motion) and it is known in the ancient
times, specified that it is the third brightest
object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. The
Maasai people in Africa named the planet Kileken,
and have a legend about it called "The Orphan
Boy." Venus was called Lucifer by St. Jerome,
who is the fallen angel "cast out of heaven"
in the Christian scripture.
The Venus symbol also represents
feminity and this sign is used in the biology
for the representation of female sex (Unicode:
?).Also ancient alchemy represents copper. Alchemists
constructed the symbol from a circle (representing
spirit) above a cross (representing matter).
Lets also see
XPhysical
Characteristics
vAtmosphere
vSurface
Features
vVenus
Moons
XObservations
And Explorations Of Venus
vHistorical
Observations
vPhases
Of Venus
vVenus-A
Study By Spacecraft
vEarly
Flybys
vEarly
Landings
vEarly
Orbiters
vPioneer
Venus
vFurther
Soviet Successes
vVega
Lander
vMagellan
vRecent
Flybys
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