Hello! If you remember, my trolls have left the Earth to travel around our solar system. In the previous episode they visited Mercury but they left in a hurry when a strong magnetic tornado hit he planet. Their rocket is now approaching Venus, the second planet near the Sun:
- Wow! Look at these beautiful clouds, are we going to fly through them? X54 asked.
- Yes, X54, we are, said X31.
- But they're moving so fast, I'm afraid of the turbulence!
- Don't worry, they are not going to damage our rocket, X42 tried to calm him down.
The trolls travel through Venus' thick clouds and manage to land on the surface of the planet.
- I feel my body weird, like it's being squeezed, X42 said.
- It's from the high atmospheric pressure, X31 explained. The atmosphere here is 93 times greater than on Earth. You can think of our stroll here like a really deep dive 1 kilometer under sea level.
- Ha! Venus is like a dive in the abyss! X42 exclaimed.
- Yes, only we hope not to find any scary creatures with luminescent limbs and thousands of sharp teeth here, X54 sounded scared.
- I doubt that, with so much carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid clouds what creature would be able to survive? X31 said.
- Carbon dioxide? Isn't it a greenhouse gas? X42 wondered.
- It causes a greenhouse effect on Venus, yes, X31started explaining. Think about it, Venus is further from the Sun than Mercury, but its thick atmosphere cause temperatures on Venus reach 460 °C, X31 said. The air here is also really dry, because the water vapor is scarce.
- And look at the ground, it feels so...rocky? X54 noticed.
- Well, actually most of it is covered by cooled lava, X31 said. Cracks on the planet's mantle allowed lava to flow all over it. There were also a lot of volcanoes on Venus, could be as many as the islands of Indonesia or even more.
- And those craters how did they form? X42 asked.
- The craters you see come from large asteroid impacts. Since Venus' atmosphere is very thick, an asteroid has to be relatively huge to reach the ground, otherwise it would turn to dust the moment it would meet friction in the atmosphere.
- I heard somewhere that Venus is kind of a feminist planet, X42 said.
- What do you mean? X54 asked.
- First of all it's the only planet in our solar system named after a woman, Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Moreover, most of its mountains and volcanoes are also named after important women, X42 explained.
- She is also known as the Earth's twin sister, X31 added.
- Hey, does this make Venus our aunt? X54 wondered.
- It could, X31 continued. Venus looks a lot like our Earth. With a slightly smaller diameter, Venus is also a rocky planet with a metal core. Gravity up here is almost the same as on Earth, about a tenth weaker than home, so those two planets have a lot in common.
- I have noticed that Venus is really bright if you see her from far away, X42 said.
- That's true, X31 said, and it's the reason why it has been falsely identified as a UFO numerous times on Earth. Oh! Did you know that Venus has a retrograde rotation, which means she rotates opposite like other planets, so the Sun rises at the west and sets at east?
- How cool would that be?! X54 sounded excited.
- Why is that so?X42 wanted to know.
- We are not sure, X31 said, but we're guessing this happened after an impact with another cosmic object or a tidal locking with the sun. Her orbit around the Sun is also unique, almost a perfect circle unlike the other elliptical orbits of the rest of the seven planets. Venus is a slow moving cosmic body. It takes 243 earth days for a single day on Venus to end and a venusian year lasts 224 earth days.
- This means that we can celebrate New Year twice on the same day? X42 asked.
- Aha, X31 said. Also, Venus doesn't have seasons, did you know that?
- No seasons? You mean an alien cannot enjoy their Christmas up in a snowy mountain or their spring picnics in a flowery park?
- X54 I think you're a bit naive, X31 tried not to laugh. Venus has a really slight axial tilt (only 3°), meaning that there cannot be any significant season changes like on Earth.
- Man! I always knew that we lived on the best planet! I love this change in seasons. I'd hate it if I had to live in a place where it's summer all the time. I enjoy each season for its own reasons.
- Hey, my compass doesn't work. I think it broke or something, X42 complained.
- No, it didn't break, it's just that Venus does not have a powerful magnetic field, X31 said.
Suddenly frightening flashes of lightning start flooding the skies and the trolls quickly jump on their rocket and take off!
- Phew! I was afraid the lightning would strike our rocket, X42 said.
- How did it form if there is very little water on the planet, X31? X42 was curious.
- On Venus there might be no water clouds, but the sulfuric clouds present an amazing lightning show that has fascinated scientists.
- Aaah! Look at this beautiful veil Venus has blowing behind her. What is it X31? X54 asked.
- It's the solar wind stripping off lighter particles of Venus' atmosphere. Those particles form a "tail" that reaches our Earth, only people cannot see it with their eyes.
- That's too bad. I'm sure they would love it.
- Me too, X54.
To be continued...
References
space.com
solarsystem.nasa.gov
youtube - "Our Solar System's Planets: Venus"
*All images by @ruth-girl
Thank you very much for being here and reading this, I really appreciate your support. I hope you like my writing and wait to read your views in the comments below.
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Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!
