The planet is named for Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
To the Teutonic peoples, the planet was known as Frig, the goddess wife of Woden. Friday (Frigdaeg) is named for her.
Venus is about the same size as Earth.
Venus rotates in a retrograde (backward) direction.
At its closest, Venus is only 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) from Earth. On average, Venus is 67 million miles from the Sun while the Earth is 93 million.
Mean distance from the Sun is (108,200,000 km/67,230,000 mi).
Venus spins so slowly, one of its days is equivalent to 255 days on Earth.
Venus has a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Atmospheric pressure at the surface is 90 times that of Earth.
Because Venus is nearer the Sun than Earth and has a very thick atmosphere, the surface temperature is extremely high, as much as 475° Celsius (900 ° Farenheit).
Venus is the second planet from the Sun.
Venus is slightly smaller than the earth in diameter – roughly 6 percent.
Objects on Venus weigh 10 percent less than on Earth due to reduced gravity.
The average temperature on Venus is a toasty 850 degrees Fahrenheit.
The atmosphere of Venus is made up primarily of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen.
Venus has no moons.
Venus takes 243 days to complete a rotation around the sun.
The core of Venus is primarily iron.
The planet is highly volcanic.
Similar to Earth, Venus has a magnetic field but much weaker.
The atmosphere of Venus is so thick with clouds, the surface characteristics were unknown until a Russian probe visited the planet.
When sending probes into the solar system, Venus is sometimes used as a slingshot to pick up speed by whipping the probe around the planet.
The former communist Russia was the first to land a probe on Venus. It was the first landing on any planet of any sort by humans.