Who Discovered Venus

The twin sister of Earth, due to their same size, Venus can be easily observed by unaided eye. Venus is the brightest object in the sky that is very difficult to spot due to its close proximity to the Sun. Thus, Venus rises with the sun and sets with the sun. The planet is named after Venus - the Roman goddess of love - 'Aphrodite'. Who discovered Venus the planet is very difficult to answer as it has been known to man before any written manuscript was maintained. Let us go into the details of discovery of planet Venus.

Discovery of Venus
The ancient civilizations called Venus the Morning Star when it rose in the morning and the same planet was also called the Evening Star, when it sets in the evening. This is because the ancient Egyptians thought the Morning Star and Evening Star were two different planets. Thus, Venus came to be known as the Wandering star. Venus moved in the sky from night to night and many times, one was unable to spot the object due to the sun's glare. The first person to understand that the two different stars, that is, Morning Star and Evening Star were one and the same was Pythagoras. Thus, you can answer who discovered Venus and when, as Pythagoras in 6th century BC. But Pythagoras made one mistake of thinking that the object revolved around Earth.

Only after Copernicus came up with his model of Solar System that had sun in the center, Venus was called a planet. So the answer to the question on discovery of Venus the planet is Copernicus. Then came Galileo, who with his rudimentary telescope found that Venus went through phases like the Moon. It went from being as big as full moon to gibbous crescent-shaped and back to full moon. Thus, he could prove Coppernicus was right, that Venus went around the Sun and not the Earth. So in a way, the answer identification of Venus can be said as Galileo, as he was the first person to correctly describe this planet.

Interesting Facts about Venus
Venus is 7,520 miles in diameter. Our planet, the Earth is 7,926 miles in diameter, which shows there is not much difference between the two planets. It revolves around Sun in a nearly circular orbit and the distance from the sun ranges to about 67.7 million miles to 66.8 million miles. It is about 67.2 miles away from the sun.

Venus is covered with thick clouds that can move very fast. These clouds are made up of sulfuric acid that reflects half of the sunlight that reaches the planet Venus. It rotates very slowly in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation. So you will experience the sun rising from the west and setting in the east, if you happen to land on Venus. Robert Richardson was the first person who discovered Venus rotated backwards.

Venus has a very high surface temperature that causes all the water to dry up on the planet. The huge levels of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide cause the extremely high temperature of the planet. The atmospheric temperature of Venus is 90 times stronger than Earth.

Russian Venera 1 was the first space probe mission that was sent to Venus. In just seven days it lost contact with Earth. America sent the first successful spacecraft, Mariner 2 in 1962 to Venus. Since then there have been many probes and spacecraft visiting Venus.

Fun Facts about Venus

• You will be surprised to know that Venus does not have a moon.
• The surface temperatures of Venus reaches about 482º C. This makes it hotter than Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun
• Venus is the sixth largest planet and one of the five planets, other than Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn that can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
• Venus is also called Shukra in Hindu astrology and Ishtar as the ancient Babylonians, who named it after the goddess of love and womanhood.
• Venus is the only planet to be named after a female figure.
• A year on Venus is about 255 days long and one Venus day is 243 Earth days!

This was all about who discovered Venus and its related facts. Just as you cannot name a single person when answering who discovered Mars, similarly you cannot exactly point out the exact discoverer of Venus. I hope the above article on discovery of Venus is helpful to you.