The Morning Star

The Morning Star

Photo: en.wikipedia.org

Excluding the sun and the moon, Venus is the brightest object in the sky. It is called the morning star when it appears in sunrise and is also called the evening star when it appears in the sunset. Venus is never visible more than 3 hours before sunrise or three hours after sunset because of the distances of the orbits of Venus and Earth from the Sun. In the ancient times, the evening star is was called Hesperus while the morning star was called Phosphorus or Lucifer. Venus has a deep atmosphere and a complete cloud cover so it is difficult to study from the Earth. Most of our knowledge about the planet has been obtained through the space crafts.

Venus is named after the Roman Goddess of Love. Venus is classified as a terrestrial planet(rocky body) and is sometimes called the Earth's sister planet. The planet takes 224.7 Earth days to orbit the sun. Venus is 12,092 km in diameter and has a mass of 81.5% of the Earth's.

References

1. Tell Me About (Chancellor Press)/space and technology/page:190
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus