Thought I would focus on the planet Venus for this week’s Space Saturdays post – Planet Venus Facts: A Hot, Hellish & Volcanic Planet – Space Saturdays: https://www.space.com/44-venus-second-planet-from-the-sun-brightest-planet-in-solar-system.html.
Research & exploration
The United States, Soviet Union, European Space Agency and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency have deployed many spacecraft to Venus, more than 20 in all so far. NASA’s Mariner 2 came within 21,600 miles (34,760 km) of Venus in 1962, making it the first planet to be observed by a passing spacecraft. The Soviet Union’s Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land on another planet, and Venera 9 returned the first photographs of the Venusian surface. The first Venusian orbiter, NASA’s Magellan, generated maps of 98 percent of the planet’s surface using radar, showing details of features as small as 330 feet (100 meters) across.
Here are a few links with more information about Venus:
Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/place/Venus-planet
Google Venus: https://www.google.com/maps/space/venus
NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/F_The_Planet_Venus_5-8.html
National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/venus/
Nine Planets: https://nineplanets.org/venus.html
Planets for Kids: https://www.planetsforkids.org/planet-venus.html?ref=driverlayer.com/image
Weather.gov: https://www.weather.gov/fsd/venus
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus
YouTube (search): https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Planet+Venus
Past Space Saturdays: https://upsdownsfamilyhistory.wordpress.com/tag/space-saturdays/
