I’m a 24-year-old student in Tokyo, and I love learning about space. Venus, our closest planetary neighbor, fascinates me. It’s called Earth’s “sister planet” because it’s almost the same size, but it’s a very different world. Venus is the second planet from the Sun, with a thick, toxic atmosphere, scorching heat, and strange volcanoes. Scientists have studied it for decades, sending probes to uncover its secrets, yet it remains a mystery. Why is Venus so hot? What’s on its surface? How did it become so different from Earth? Let’s explore Venus—its features, history, and place in the universe—as I share my excitement about this fiery planet.
Venus is close to Earth, about 41 million kilometers away on average, sometimes as near as 38 million. It orbits the Sun every 225 Earth days, faster than Earth’s 365-day year. Venus is 12,104 kilometers wide, just 650 kilometers smaller than Earth, and has a mass about 82% of Earth’s. Gravity on Venus is almost the same as Earth’s, so I’d weigh nearly the same there. But walking on Venus would be impossible because of its extreme conditions. Venus spins very slowly, taking 243 Earth days for one rotation, and it spins backward compared to most planets, a motion called retrograde rotation. This means the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east, opposite to Earth. A day on Venus, from sunrise to sunrise, lasts 117 Earth days because of its slow spin and orbit.
The atmosphere of Venus is what makes it so unique—and deadly. It’s 96% carbon dioxide, with clouds of sulfuric acid and traces of nitrogen. The atmosphere is 92 times thicker than Earth’s, creating pressure like being 900 meters underwater. This pressure would crush a human or most machines. The greenhouse effect traps heat, making Venus the hottest planet in the solar system. Surface temperatures average 464°C, hot enough to melt lead. Even at night or at the poles, it’s always scorching. The thick clouds reflect sunlight, making Venus shine bright in Earth’s sky, often called the “Evening Star” or “Morning Star.” But these clouds block views of the surface, hiding it from telescopes. Lightning flashes in the atmosphere, and high winds, up to 360 kilometers per hour, blow clouds around the planet every four days.
The surface of Venus is a harsh, rocky desert. Scientists mapped it using radar, which can see through clouds. About 80% of the surface is flat, volcanic plains made of basalt, a dark lava rock. There are thousands of volcanoes, some as big as Earth’s Mauna Loa. Tesserae, wrinkled highland regions, cover about 7% of the surface, formed by crust squeezing together. There are also huge craters, but only about 1,000, because smaller meteorites burn up in the thick atmosphere, and volcanic lava covers older craters. The largest crater, Mead, is 280 kilometers wide. Venus has two main “continents,” raised areas called Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra. Ishtar, in the north, is the size of Australia, with Maxwell Montes, a mountain 11 kilometers high, taller than Everest. Aphrodite, near the equator, is as big as South America. Unlike Earth, Venus has no plate tectonics, so its crust doesn’t move much, but heat escapes through volcanoes.
Venus likely formed 4.6 billion years ago, like Earth, from a cloud of gas and dust around the young Sun. Dust and rocks stuck together, building Venus into a rocky planet. Early Venus might have been more like Earth, with liquid water and a thinner atmosphere. Scientists think oceans existed billions of years ago, based on water vapor traces and surface features that look like dried riverbeds. But the Sun got hotter, and Venus’s water evaporated, creating a runaway greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide built up, trapping heat, and the planet became a furnace. Without water or plate tectonics, Venus couldn’t recycle carbon like Earth, locking it in the atmosphere. This history explains why Venus and Earth, so similar in size, are now so different.
How do we know about Venus? Space missions have taught us a lot. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union sent the Venera probes. Venera 7, in 1970, was the first to land and send data, surviving 23 minutes before the heat destroyed it. Venera 9, in 1975, sent the first photos of the surface, showing sharp rocks and a yellow sky. Later Venera missions measured the atmosphere and soil, finding granite-like rocks. In 1990, NASA’s Magellan probe mapped 98% of Venus’s surface with radar, revealing volcanoes and craters. Japan’s Akatsuki, launched in 2010, still studies Venus’s atmosphere, tracking clouds and weather. In 2021, NASA and ESA announced new missions—VERITAS, DAVINCI, and EnVision—to map the surface and study its history, set to launch in the late 2020s. These missions will look for signs of past water or active volcanoes.
Venus’s surface is young compared to other planets. Most of it formed 500–700 million years ago, when huge volcanic eruptions covered older land. This resurfacing erased ancient features, unlike the Moon or Mars, which have 4-billion-year-old craters. Some scientists think Venus still has active volcanoes, as Akatsuki saw heat changes and sulfur dioxide spikes, a gas linked to eruptions. In 2023, researchers found signs of recent lava flows in Magellan data, hinting Venus is geologically alive. If true, Venus could teach us about how rocky planets evolve.
Venus has no moons or rings, unlike Jupiter or Saturn. Its backward spin might come from a giant impact long ago or from the thick atmosphere slowing it down. The planet has no magnetic field, likely because its slow spin and solid core don’t create the liquid currents needed, like Earth’s outer core. Without a magnetic field, solar wind strips away parts of the atmosphere, including water vapor, making Venus even drier over time.
Life on Venus is unlikely, but scientists wonder. The surface is too hot and acidic, but in 2020, researchers found phosphine, a gas linked to life, in Venus’s clouds, about 50 kilometers up, where temperatures are cooler, around 30°C. This sparked debate, as phosphine could come from unknown chemical reactions, not life. Later studies questioned the find, but missions like DAVINCI will test the clouds for life signs. If microbes exist, they’d be very different from Earth’s life, floating in acidic droplets.
Venus teaches us about Earth’s future. As the Sun gets hotter in billions of years, Earth could become like Venus, with oceans boiling and a runaway greenhouse effect. Studying Venus helps us understand climate change, showing how carbon dioxide traps heat. It also helps us learn about other planets. Many exoplanets, found around distant stars, are Venus-like, with thick atmospheres and high heat. Venus is a nearby lab for understanding these worlds.
Venus has a place in history and culture. Ancient people saw it as a bright star, guiding travelers. In Mesopotamia, it was linked to the goddess Inanna. In Rome, it was Venus, the goddess of love. Japan’s myths connect it to the heavens. Today, Venus inspires stories of space exploration, like sci-fi tales of cloud cities above its surface. Its beauty in the sky hides its harsh reality, making it a planet of contrasts.
There are mysteries left to solve. Did Venus ever have oceans? Are its volcanoes active today? Could life exist in its clouds? Why does it spin backward? New missions will help answer these. For example, VERITAS will map the surface in 3D, and DAVINCI will dive through the atmosphere, measuring gases. Scientists also want to send landers that survive longer, maybe using heat-resistant tech tested in 2024. Posts on X show excitement for these missions, with some users dreaming of human bases on Venus’s clouds one day.
I dream of seeing Venus up close, maybe through a telescope or in data from new probes. I imagine its glowing clouds and lava plains, a world so close yet so alien. Standing on Earth, I look at Venus in the sky and feel amazed. It’s a reminder of how planets form, change, and challenge our ideas about life. Venus, with its heat, acid, and beauty, is a fiery puzzle in our solar system, waiting for us to learn more.