| The second brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, Venus reflects over 75% of the sunlight that hits its dense cloud cover. It is known as the "evening star" or the "morning star". At its closest to earth, it can be seen as a crescent as in the picture. It has phases like our moon and when at its fullest, it is furthest away from earth. | ||
 |
It takes 225 days to orbit the sun and takes 243 days to turn on its axis. Its diameter is about 12 300 km. | |
| The atmosophere is mainly carbon dioxide with smaller amounts of nitrogen and the noble gases. The temperature in the top cloud layers is around -50° C and that on the surface around 500° C. |
