Basic Statistics and Motion Venus Basic Statistics and Motion

Roman Goddess of Beauty Size and Mass Radius: 6,051 km (94.9% of Earth’s) It’s just a little smaller than Earth. Mass: .815 of Earth Masses (4.87 x 10^24 kg) It’s just a little less massive Density: 5.25 g/cm³ ( 95.1% of Earth’s) About the same Surface Gravity: 8.87 m/s² (90.5% of Earth’s) That’s why it is known as Earth’s Twin. Name Origin Roman Goddess of Beauty

Orbit Rotation Radius: .723 AU ( 108.2 million km) Period (year): 224.7 Earth days Rotation Sidereal Day (Period): 243 Earth days Solar Day: 117 Earth days Direction: Retrograde Because…Venus is tilted almost upside down (177°) Thus it spins backward compared to other planets! Therefore the revolution and rotation work together to make the solar day shorter than the Sidereal day

A Weak Magnetic Field The Venusian magnetic field is weak compared to Earth because It spins so slowly (Thus Venus is not protected from the Solar Wind/Flares)

Why the weird spin? Two Hypotheses: Tilt: Venus collided with a very large planetismal that Flipped it over (and may have slowed it down). Speed: Tidal forces from the Sun and Earth influenced its spin