Morning star

So there it is - shining like a little a gem in the early morning. Best seen at about 7am, or shortly there after. Very bright - in the south.

So there it is - Venus - it shows phases you know, like the moon - except you need some good magnification to see such things. I might give that a go one day.

Venus - once thought to be the god of love, and a watery planet capable of supporting life. Now we know it is anything but habitable. It has a run away green house gas atmosphere. Nearly 97% carbon dioxide. This means the surface temperature is about 460°C - hot even for sun worshippers (hotter even than the surface of Mercury which is much nearer the Sun). The rain, when it falls is mostly sulphuric acid, although it evaporates before it hits the hot surface. The thick atmosphere means it has a pressure 92 times that of Earth's, so you would be boiled, corroded and squashed in quick succession.

It doesn't seem to have plate tectonics like the Earth, but is still pretty hot inside - being as its nearly Earth's twin in all other respects. This leads to pressure build ups below the crust that can't escape like they can on the Earth, and it is thought every few millions years the whole planets surface cracks open like a fruit crumble with the juice coming out and giving it a new all over crust.

So - not a nice place to live for beings like us. Despite that, the Russians managed to land a probe on it that took some pictures before it corroded/melted/imploded.

Just shows you what a lot of greenhouse gas can do.