Venus is the second planet out from the Sun.  Apart from the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky.  The planet is called the Morning Star when it appears at sunrise in the east, and the Evening Star when it appears at sunset in the west.  Venus is never visible more than three hours before sunrise or three hours after sunset.
Venus's complete cloud cover make it difficult to study from the earth.

The surface temperature on Venus is about 462 degrees centigrade across the whole planet surface.  The atmosphere consists almost wholly of carbon dioxide with traces of nitrogen, argon, neon, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide) and the cloud particles are mostly concentrated sulphuric acid.
Venus's distance from the Sun is approximately 108,200,000 km (67,230,000 miles).  It takes approximately 226 days to revolve around the Sun and takes 243 days to rotate about its own axis.  It has no satellites (moons).
Its mass is equal to 82% of that of the earth.

The planet has been studied in some detail by a number of probes.  In 1962 Mariner 2 flew by, followed in 1965 by Mariner 5 and then Mariner 10 in 1974.  The Soviet Union also sent a number of probes - Venera 4 and 5 in 1967, Venera 6 (1969), Venera 7 (1970), Venera 8 (1972), Venera 9  and 10 (1975), Venera 11 and 12 (1978), Venera 13 and 14 (1981) and Venera 15 and 16 (1983).  Several of these probes successfully reached the planet's surface.  The Magellan probe, launched in 1989, began transmitting radar images of the planet in 1990.  Pioneer Venus 1 continues to orbit Venus and is still sending back data.

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