Planet Venus is one of the brightest stars we can see, and is also one of mankind's most curious of planets. Its upper clouds consist of sulfuric acid, and are constantly blown around it at speeds over four hundred kilometers an hour. In fact, its atmosphere is so highly dense, that it is only lately that we have been able to comprehend that it has such an extreme atmosphere hiding its surface. It is one of the hottest planets in our Solar System, with an average surface temperature of over 480 degrees. Heat simply cannot escape this planet due to its controlling atmosphere.

It appears that Venus has experienced thousands of large crater hits and volcanic eruptions as part of its creation. Small meteorites simply would not survive through its atmosphere. It is covered with over one hundred thousand small volcanoes, as well as hundreds of large ones. The majority of its surface is therefore volcanic, with massive lava flows having created vast plains hundreds of kilometers long.

Venus is one of only two planets which rotate in the opposite direction. If we were able to actually witness the start of a new Venusian day, we would see the Sun rising in the West, and falling in the East. In actual fact, Venus rotates so slowly, that one day on Venus equals 243 days on Earth. Venus is also subject to a never ending thunder and lightning show.

Because of its similarities with Earth's size and heavenly atmosphere, both the ancients and modern man thought of Venus as Earth's Sister planet. It was named after 'Venus - The Goddess of Love and Beauty'. A part of its northern hemisphere was named after 'Ishtar - The Babylonian Goddess of Love', whilst a part of its southern hemisphere was named after 'Aphrodite - The Greek Goddess of Love'.

Some ancients considered planet Venus to be similar to what they believed as The Garden of Eden. It was thought that it was a planet of beautiful rich vegetation, pure water streams, and of course, that a tranquil life existed there. This was not the reality as modern studies proved later in time. Far from it in fact!