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Pictures of Venus by the Galileo spacecraft. The two pictures at the bottom were taken 2 hours apart. You can see how much the clouds rotated around Venus in those 2 hours - the clouds moved from right to left.

The two pictures at the top show totally different view of Venus.

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An ultraviolet-light photograph of Venus by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. The clouds on Venus are made of sulfuric acid. Ultraviolet wavelengths show the clouds of Venus more clearly. When observed from Earth, Venus goes through phases, just like the moon.

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A false-color picture of Venus taken by the Galileo Project. The false colors emphasizes the clouds of the planet.

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system because its thick clouds create a greenhouse effect that traps in the heat of the sunlight it gets.

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A color-coded map of Venus - made possible by radar observations of The Magellan spacecraft.

Venus is similar to the Earth in terms of size and mass - it is sometimes called the Earth's sister planet. However, a day on the planet Venus is 243 Earth days long.

Large image: size 62 KB

Some questions about these pictures of the planet Venus

• Can you see how much the clouds on Venus moved in 6 hours?
• Can you see the surface of Venus - if you were inside the Galileo spacecraft?
• Which spacecrafts studied Venus?
• What is used to look through the clouds of Venus to make a map of the surface craters of Venus?
• Which type of photograph is the best to show the detail in the clouds of Venus?
• What are the clouds of Venus made of?
• Why is Venus so hot?
• How long are the days on the planet Venus?