Morning and evening star. Evening Star

Venus in the sky at the beginning of 2014 - 16 photos.

The beautiful Evening Star is preparing to move into the morning sky: on January 11, the planet's inferior conjunction with the Sun will occur. As Venus approaches the luminary in the sky, it exhibits phases similar to those of the Moon. At the same time, its apparent size increased to 1 arc minute.

Hundreds of photographs of Venus, taken in various parts of the planet, have appeared on the Internet. We have selected 16 images demonstrating the phase of Venus, the lengthening of its horns and other interesting and beautiful celestial phenomena involving this planet.

Venus in the evening dawn on December 31, 2013. The planet is so bright that it leaves a distinct trail on the water surface. The image was taken in El Salvador, Central America. Photo: Sergio Emilio Montufar Codoner

Narrow crescent of Venus. As Venus and the Sun approach each other in our sky, the part of the planet facing us becomes less and less illuminated by the star, exhibiting phases similar to those of the Moon. In this image, the crescent of Venus is very narrow, but at the same time bright enough to be visible against the background of the still blue sky, behind a veil of light clouds. If the Moon, which is generally made of rather dark rocks, reflects less than 10% of the sunlight falling on it, then the clouds of Venus are bright as snow. This explains its high brilliance even at the minimum phase. This image was taken on January 4 in Romania using a 110 mm refractor (100x magnification). Photo: Maximilian Teodorescu

Sickle of Venus a week before the inferior conjunction. The image was taken using a Celestron C5 telescope mounted motionless on an alt-azimuth mount. Exposure was 1/250 second, ISO 400, Canon EOS T3 camera. Photo: Steven Bellavia

Conjunction of the Moon and Venus in the evening sky on January 3. On the left, Venus and the Moon are captured in one frame (FUJI HS20EXR equipment, 364 mm), on the right - their more detailed, enlarged images obtained using a Canon 1100D, 1300 mm. The crescent of Venus is now about 30 times smaller than the crescent of the Moon, but the planet itself is almost 100 times farther from us than the Moon. Photo: Pal VARADI NAGY

New Year's crescent. Venus, captured with a long telephoto lens from Quebec City, Canada, on the cold evening of December 30th. Photo: Jay Ouellet

Bright Venus illuminates the clouds over the Swiss Alps. Photo: Christoph Malin

Clouds and crescents: Moon and Venus conjunction January 2, 2014. Photographer Christophe Malin took several photographs of the conjunction, one of which appeared on the authoritative website APOD (Astronomical Picture of the Day) on January 2. Photo: Christoph Malin

In this photo, Venus hanging low above the horizon is captured along with an astronomical phenomenon unfamiliar to the vast majority of city residents - zodiacal light. Zodiacal light is a weak cone-shaped glow stretching along the ecliptic (in the picture the cone is stretched upward above Venus). The glow occurs due to the scattering of sunlight by interplanetary dust accumulated in the plane of the planets' orbits. Photo: Sergio Montufar

An airplane flying against the backdrop of the Venirian sickle. The photo was taken on January 1 in Utah (USA). Photo: Barry Glazier

Venus against a background of rainbow clouds. The photo was taken on the afternoon of January 5 in the Netherlands. Photo: Jan Koeman

Venus appeared as a giant letter C in the evening sky on January 4 to the author of this photo, Mariano Ribas from Buenos Aires, when he pointed his refracting telescope at it. Photo: Mariano Ribas

Elongated "horns" of Venus. sunlight, refracted in the dense atmosphere of the planet, penetrates far beyond the horizon. Photo: Shahrin Ahmad

As Venus gets closer to the Sun in our sky, its crescent becomes thinner. In this image, only a little more than 1% of Venus's facing surface is illuminated by the star. Photo: Shahrin Ahmad

Just a few minutes after sunset, Venus shines brightly in the rays of the evening dawn. This photo was taken in San Francisco; the planet sparkles above the spreading fog and above the eucalyptus trees. Photo: fksr

Melting sickle of Venus. Photo: Shahrin Ahmad

Venus, the second-most distant planet from the ☼ Sun and the closest planet to Earth solar system, astronomical sign. Venus was also known as the Morning Star, Hesperus, Vesper, the Evening Star, Phosphorus, and Lucifer. The average distance from the Sun is 108 million km (0.723 astronomical units). The sidereal period is 224 days. 16 hours 49 minutes 8 seconds. For an observer on Earth, the angular distance of Venus from the Sun does not exceed 48°, as a result of which it is visible only for some time shortly before its rise (morning star).

Venus is the brightest luminary (after the Sun and Moon) in the earth's sky. At its maximum brightness it reaches magnitude 4.4; the phases of Venus (discovered by G. Galileo in 1610) can be noticed by people with exceptionally good eyesight with the naked eye.

The astrological mysticism of Venus was determined by the special proportion of its rotation, opposite to the movement of all other planets in the solar system. One got the impression that Venus is a “planet in reverse.” Therefore, she was often called Lucifer and endowed with demonic traits and was seen as a counterweight to the Sun. Sometimes “Venus” meant the “star Wormwood” mentioned in the Apocalypse. Venus is a symbol of external, carnal beauty. Therefore, she was called “Morning Star” or “Day Day”.

According to the esoteric legend of a number of Indo-European tribes, the “white race” originates from Venus. The “Children of Venus” - the Luciferites - were opposed to the rest of humanity. The alchemical metal of Venus is copper. Its musical counterpart is the note G. Animals of Venus - bull, panther, goat, seal; birds - dove and sparrow; plants - verbena, fig tree; stones - emerald, garnet, chrysolite. The color semantics of the planet is blue. Countries under the patronage of Venus are Persia, Spain, India; cities - Vienna, Paris, Florence.

"Lucifer" is a dim morning star, a harbinger of dazzling radiance midday sun , "Eosphorus" of the Greeks. It twinkles timidly at sunset to accumulate strength and dazzle the eyes after sunset like its own brother, “Hesperus” - the shining star, or planet Venus. There is no more suitable symbol for the proposed work - than to shed a ray of truth on everything that is hidden in the darkness of prejudice, social or religious errors; especially those caused by that idiotically routine way of life, which, as soon as an act, thing or name has been disgraced by a slanderous fabrication, however unjust it may be, makes so-called respectable people turn away with a shudder and refuse even to even look at it with any respect. any other side, except that which is sanctioned by public opinion.

Therefore, such an attempt to force cowardly people to face the truth is very effectively helped by the name classified as cursed names.

Devout readers may object that the word "Lucifer" is accepted by all churches as one of the many names of the devil. According to Milton's grand fantasy, Lucifer is Satan, the "rebellious" angel, the enemy of God and man. But if you analyze his rebellion, you cannot find anything more evil in it than the demand for free will and independent thought.

Lucifer, the bringer of light, is a natural teacher and mentor for any magician.

Lucifer - planet ♀ Venus, like the bright “Morning Star”, is nothing more than the Light of the Supreme Soul reflected in rough earthly matter or the “inverted” Christ, therefore Lucifer is translated as the bearer of Light - the spark that gave birth to the human intellect or the “false light”, without which the lower animal soul a person could never be enlightened by the True Light of the Supreme World Soul. Therefore, in “Revelation” (ХХП, 16), words about himself are put into the mouth of the Christian Savior: “I am... the bright and morning star” or Lucifer.

Lucifer is the feminine principle of God. The feminine nature of Lucifer is the basis on which “he” is correlated with Venus, the Morning Star and is found to correspond with those properties and associations that have traditionally been considered feminine: such as instinct, beauty, pride, and, of course, temptation.

Venus-Lucifer, the morning star rising before the sun belongs to that type of emotional activity which, symbolically speaking, precedes the self. This is not necessarily an extroverted, particularly intense or unrestrained type of emotionality, although this is often the general tendency. This is the type of person who comes out to meet the world, first of all, to meet other people with greedy anticipation, as if life itself depended on the result of the meeting; if, however, this expectation ends in disappointment, the person may appear outwardly cold and withdrawn, but this is only a mask of self-defense.

Venus-Lucifer represents the quality of youthful experiences. The strings of feelings are stretched to the limit. A feeling of personal insecurity prevails; feelings serve as guides and pointers. Later, perhaps, these feelings will receive the more mature and respectable name of intuition, but the nature of the process remains essentially the same. One senses situations and people in an act of almost immediate ethical judgment. They are good or bad specifically for him and at a specific time. He acts according to his feeling, how he needs to act, very often infecting with his feeling, his warmth. This type includes (if you choose at random) Walt Whitman, Richard Wagner, Vincent Van Gogh, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Napoleon I, Mussolini, Maria Montessori (the great teacher), F. Roosevelt; This is Venus in the US birth chart.

Morning Venus creates magnetic fields and archetypes, that is, it gives form to the spiritual release of solar energy, the source of all manifestations and not specific, physical fitness(which belongs to the sphere of Saturn), but an archetypal spiritual pattern of energy, a network of electro-magnetic forces. Person with strong Venus-Lucifer in birth chart naturally strives to project his vision and purpose of life into the world, to impose on others the rhythm of his essential existence. He feels like a proclaimer, a mouthpiece for God, pouring himself out emotionally and often proudly into his creations. This emotional outpouring can be neutralized by other factors

This zodiacal arcana corresponds to ♒ Aquarius:

♒ Aquarius has two rulers: ♅ Uranus and ♄ Saturn. They endowed ♒ Aquarians with breadth of mind, intelligence and the ability to penetrate into the most mysterious secrets of the universe. The main driving idea and force of ♒ Aquarius is some higher idea, which he strives to immediately bring to life. This often makes him incomprehensible to others and sometimes brings suffering ♒ Aquarius, who strives to communicate with people. He wants to reveal to people some of the secrets known to him, he is often endowed with clairvoyant abilities, and can act as a soothsayer or magician.

However, internal inconsistency prevents full self-expression, which makes Aquarius irritable and pushes others away from him. Constant attempts to reconcile and balance one's inner depth and mystery with outer energy and simplicity can hinder Aquarius in life. Meanwhile, this is one of the most humane and altruistic signs. If Aquarius has a strong will, he can curb his passions and ultimately achieve what he wants. This is facilitated by determination and stubbornness.

The basis of the nature of any ♒ Aquarius is duality. At the same time, they strive for universal love and glory, for ideal spirituality and material well-being, independence and prestige. However, they rarely give themselves entirely to any impulse, preferring some contemplation. However, the strong type ♒ Aquarius can be very active and adamant. They have very developed intuition, but a weak type can become jealous, insensitive, and unkind, especially if he is obsessed with the desire to get ahead.

In love they are very sentimental, mystical and chaste. People enter into marriage very reluctantly, even if we're talking about O Great love, because they instinctively hate any fetters, even happy ones. They rarely focus on family, preferring friends or the good of humanity as a whole. The tendency to idealize often leads them to bitter disappointments. Aquarius men are especially prone to such idealization. Women are very sensitive, but they are just as freedom-loving as men and are just as inclined to elevate their chosen one to an unattainable pedestal. They are not immediately disappointed, but once disappointed, they leave their partner forever.

They fit well into any team, are not envious, have an easy-going and good disposition, and are always willing to help newcomers. Having become a leader, they manage to maintain good relations with everyone, willingly share their plans and are never rude dictators. They are always full of fresh and unexpected ideas that they try to implement. They are very disciplined, responsible, enjoy universal respect and often love. They are not interested in money at all, which is why Aquarians often turn out to be truly poor people.

They treat luxury with surprising indifference, even if their wealth allows them to surround themselves with unprecedented comfort. They spend money unscrupulously and ineptly, preferring to spend it on others rather than on themselves. They have artistic abilities, express themselves best in art, and are good workers in television, cinema, education, spiritual mentoring, psychology, and sociology. Aquarians make successful careers in the fields of law, engineering, aeronautics and shipbuilding.

They get sick often, quickly get tired of treatment, refuse it, which can lead to additional exacerbations. Usually graceful, agile, often rushing from one extreme to another, leading either the life of an ascetic and ascetic, or a sybarite and a lazy person. They may suffer from insomnia, as they are under constant nervous tension.

Aquarius has very fragile bones, so numerous fractures are possible. Metabolic disorders, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and sclerosis cannot be ruled out. Exposure infectious diseases very big. You should lead a measured lifestyle, eat right, try to get tired less and move more. Sedentary work is not favorable for Aquarius.

They are always elegant, have refined taste and strive to look elegant and original. Aquarius women have the rare ability to look dazzling and expensive, without using overly luxurious fabrics or jewelry. Sometimes it happens that originality turns into extravagance, somewhat shocking those around you. Aquarians - both men and women - always strive to look trendy.

It is very easy to find it in the sky. Everyone has noticed how sometimes in the evening an “evening star” lights up in a still very bright sky. As the dawn fades, Venus becomes brighter and brighter, and when it gets completely dark and other stars appear, it stands out sharply among them. But Venus does not shine for long. An hour or two passes and she comes in. She never appears in the middle of the night, but there is a time when she can be seen in the morning, before dawn, in the role of the “morning star.” It is already dawn, all the other stars have long since disappeared, and Venus continues to shine and shine against the bright background of the morning dawn.

People have known Venus since time immemorial. Many legends and beliefs were associated with it. In ancient times they thought that these were two different luminaries: one appears in the evenings, the other in the mornings. Then they realized that this was the same luminary, the beauty of the sky, the “evening and morning star” - Venus. The “Evening Star” has been sung more than once by poets and composers, described in the works of great writers, and depicted in paintings by famous artists.

In terms of brilliance, Venus is the third luminary of the sky, if the Sun is considered first, and . It is not surprising that it can sometimes be seen during the day - in the form of a white dot in the sky.

Venus's orbit lies inside the Earth's orbit, and it circles the Sun in 224 days, or 7 ½ months. The fact that Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth is the reason for the peculiarities of its visibility. Like Mercury, Venus can only move away from the Sun a certain distance, which does not exceed 46°. Therefore, it sets no later than 3-4 hours after sunset, and rises no earlier than 3-4 hours before morning.

Even with the weakest telescope it is clear that Venus is not a point, but a ball, one side of which is illuminated by the Sun, while the other is immersed in darkness.

Watching Venus day after day, you will notice that, like Moon Mercury, it goes through the entire change of phases.

Venus is usually easy to see with field binoculars. There are people with such acute vision that they can see the crescent of Venus even with the naked eye. This happens for two reasons: firstly, Venus is relatively large, it is only slightly smaller globe; secondly, in certain positions it comes close to the Earth, so that the distance to it decreases from 259 to 40 million km. This is the closest large celestial body to us after the Moon.

In a telescope, Venus appears very large, much larger than the Moon to the naked eye. It would seem that you can see a lot of different details on it, for example mountains, valleys, seas, rivers. Actually this is not true. No matter how many times astronomers looked at Venus, they were always disappointed. The visible surface of this planet is always white, monotonous, and nothing is visible on it except vague dim spots. Why is this so? The answer to this question was given by the great Russian scientist M.V. Lomonosov.

Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth. Therefore, sometimes it passes between the Earth and the Sun, and then it can be seen against the background of the dazzling solar disk in the form of a black dot. True, this happens very rarely. IN last time Venus passed in front of the Sun in 1882, and the next time it will be in 2004.

The passage of Venus in front of the Sun in 1761 was observed, among many other scientists, by M. V. Lomonosov. Carefully watching through a telescope how the dark circle of Venus appears against the fiery background of the solar surface, he noticed a new phenomenon, previously unknown to anyone. When Venus covered the disk of the Sun by more than half of its diameter, a fiery rim, as thin as hair, suddenly appeared around the rest of the ball of Venus, which was still against the dark background of the sky. The same thing was visible when Venus left the solar disk. came to the conclusion that it was all about the atmosphere - the layer of gas that surrounds Venus. In this gas, the sun's rays are refracted, bend around the opaque globe of the planet and appear to the observer in the form of a fiery rim. Summing up his observations, Lomonosov wrote:

“The planet Venus is surrounded by a noble air atmosphere...” It was very important scientific discovery

. proved that the planets are similar to the Earth in their motion. With his first observations through a telescope, he established that the planets are dark, cold balls on which there is day and night. Lomonosov proved that on planets, as on Earth, there can be an ocean of air - an atmosphere. The air ocean of Venus differs in many ways from ours, when a continuous opaque cover of clouds floats in the air, but there is also clear weather, when the Sun shines through the transparent air during the day, and thousands of stars are visible at night. It's always cloudy on Venus. Its atmosphere is always covered with white cloud cover. This is what we see when we look at Venus through a telescope.

The solid surface of the planet turns out to be inaccessible for observation: it is hidden behind a dense cloudy atmosphere.

And what is under this cloud cover, on the very surface of Venus? Are there continents, seas, oceans, mountains, rivers? We don't know this yet. Cloud cover makes it impossible to spot any features on the planet's surface and figure out how quickly they are moving due to the planet's rotation. Therefore, we do not know at what speed Venus rotates around its axis. About this planet we can only say that it is very warm, much warmer than on Earth, because it is closer to the Sun. And it has also been established that in the atmosphere of Venus there is a lot carbon dioxide. As for the rest, only future researchers will be able to tell about it.

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The planet Venus is one of our closest neighbors. Only the Moon is closer to us (excluding, of course, artificial Earth satellites launched in the last few years). Venus is visible as a very bright celestial object.

This planet is especially interesting because in many respects it is an almost exact twin of our Earth. Venus is approximately the same size and mass as Earth, so there is reason to expect similar physical conditions on both planets. Unfortunately, we cannot directly observe the surface of Venus, because its atmosphere is an insurmountable barrier for our telescopes. Therefore, our knowledge about Venus is much more limited than about Mars, although the latter is further from us and smaller in size. In this book, I hope to summarize the results that astronomers have been able to accumulate and indicate possible directions for further research. Venus is a mysterious world, but it seems that our attempts to explore it are finally taking off.

The solar system consists of one star - the Sun - and nine main stars, as well as a huge number of smaller celestial bodies. Planets do not have their own glow; they merely reflect the sun's rays and appear bright only because of their relative proximity. They revolve around the Sun in elliptical paths called orbits; the average distances of the planets from the Sun range from 58 million km for Mercury. In ancient times, however, they thought differently: the Earth was considered the center of the Universe, and celestial bodies- deities.

Five planets - Mercury, Venus. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn - must have been known since prehistoric times, and even in ancient times it was noted that although the planets look like stars, they behave completely differently. Real stars appear motionless celestial sphere and participate only in its daily rotation, so that the Chaldean shepherd astronomers thousands of years ago saw the same outlines of the constellations as we do. The planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, on the contrary, wander among the stars within a certain belt in the sky known as the Zodiac. Mercury and Venus also move in this belt, but at the same time follow the Sun as it moves among the stars (which gave reason to consider them to be closer to us than the Sun).

Venus, the brightest luminary after the Sun and Moon, is never visible in the sky throughout the night. Either it sets as an evening star a few hours after the Sun, or as a morning star it appears shortly before sunrise. At one time it was believed that the morning and evening stars were different celestial bodies, and not the same planet. In Egypt, for example, the evening star was known as Owhaiti, and the morning star as Thiomuthiri; however, in China she was called by one name, Tai-pi, or White-faced Beauty.

The Babylonians called Venus Ishtar (the personification of woman and mother of the gods) and described her as “the bright torch of heaven.” Temples were erected in her honor in Nineveh and many other places. It was believed that Ishtar sent abundance to people. Ancient legend says that when Ishtar went to the kingdom of the dead to find her deceased lover Tammuz, all life on Earth began to fade away and was saved only thanks to the intervention of the gods, who resurrected Tammuz and thereby returned Igatar to the living. The analogy with the ancient legend of Demeter and Persephone is obvious.

The association of the planet with a woman took place among all peoples, except, perhaps, the Indians. This is quite natural, since to an earthly observer Venus appears to be the most beautiful of the planets. The Greeks and Romans gave the name to the goddess of beauty, and temples of Venus were erected in many places, such as Cyprus and Sicily. The month of April was dedicated to the goddess. In fact, the cult of Venus persisted until very recently. Williamson testifies that back in the 19th century. and Polynesia offered human sacrifices to the Morning Star; Sacrifices were also performed by the Skydy Pawnee Indians in Nebraska. It takes many years for ancient beliefs to fade away.

Homer also mentioned Venus: “Hesperus is the most beautiful of the stars of heaven.” The oldest surviving records of observations of the planet appear to have been made in Babylon. However, astronomy only firmly established itself as a science in ancient times. It became known that the Earth is not a plane, but a sphere, and other planets are also spheres. If the Greeks had taken one more step and overthrown our planet from its throne of honor at the center of the Universe, it seems that the progress of mankind would have accelerated. Some philosophers and scientists, most notably Aristarchus of Samos, did this, but their ideas contradicted religious tenets, and subsequently the ancient Greeks returned to geocentrism.

The ancient Greek system of the world received its highest development in the works of Hipparchus and Ptolemy. Claudius Ptolemy, who died around 180 AD, left us a work (“Almagest.”—Ed.), which reflected the level of knowledge during the decline of ancient culture. This system is known as the "Ptolemaic system", although, in fact, Ptolemy was not its main author.

According to these ideas, the Earth is at the center of the Universe, and various celestial bodies revolve around it in “perfect” circular orbits. Closest to all other bodies to the Earth is Lupa, then Mercury, Venus and the Sun, followed by the other three planets known at that time - Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and, finally, the stars.

Already in the time of Ptolemy, it was obvious that such a system of the universe faced significant difficulties. For example, the planets do not continuously move among the stars from west to east: Mars, Jupiter and Saturn can stop for a few days, then go back, making a “retrograde” movement, and then again begin to move in the same direction - to the east. To get rid of this difficulty, Ptolemy, who was an excellent mathematician, proposed that the planet moves in a small circle, or "epicycle", the center of which in turn revolves around the Earth in a large circle - the "deferent". The possibility that planets could move in elliptical orbits was not allowed. Movement in a circle was considered the most perfect form movement, and nothing but absolutely perfect, of course, could happen in heaven.

New problems arose for Mercury and Venus, and Ptolemy was forced to assume that the centers of their epicycles were constantly in a straight line with the Sun and Earth. This at least explained why both planets never appeared on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun. However, the whole system turned out to be too artificial and cumbersome.

At the beginning of the 17th century. The telescope was invented, and in 1609 Galileo Galilei, a professor of mathematics in Padua, pointed the instrument he had just made to the sky for the first time. The scientist immediately saw that his expectations were more than justified. High mountains and huge craters were visible on the Moon; there were spots on the Sun; four of its own moons were circling around Jupiter, and Saturn looked somehow strange, although Galileo could not figure out what was going on there, and Milky Way turned out to be a huge mass of faint stars.

Galileo himself was an ardent supporter heliocentric system world, which was resurrected and developed by Copernicus about 60 years earlier. Galileo looked for evidence of the validity of this system and found it, oddly enough, by observing the phases of Venus. Yes, Venus did exhibit phases, but they turned out to be of the same type as those of the Moon: sometimes the planet was observed in the form of a crescent, and sometimes as an almost complete disk.

Galileo's discoveries were met with a storm of indignation. The princes of the church objected vehemently; The story of Galileo's arrest, trial and forced abdication is well known. Many of his contemporaries refused to believe what they saw through telescopes, and Galileo did not live to fully admit that he was right.

Kepler also walked along the right way. His research, based on the precise observations of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, allowed the scientist to derive the famous laws of planetary motion that bear the name of Kepler. The first of these laws states that each planet revolves around the Sun in an ellipse, at one of the foci of which the Sun itself is located; the movement of Venus, as I expected, obeyed this law. At the very end of the century, Isaac Newton's works devoted to the problem universal gravity, finally clarified the whole picture. Since then the Ptolemaic system and others geocentric systems have become a thing of the past.

The discovery of the phases of Venus helped open the door to knowledge; the path forward seemed clear.

At the North Pole

18 h 11 min 2 s
272.76° Declination at the North Pole 67.16° Albedo 0,65 Surface temperature 737 K
(464 °C) Apparent magnitude −4,7 Angular size 9,7" - 66,0" Atmosphere Surface pressure 9.3 MPa Atmospheric composition ~96.5% Ang. gas
~3.5% Nitrogen
0.015% Sulfur dioxide
0.007% Argon
0.002% Water vapor
0.0017% Carbon monoxide
0.0012% Helium
0.0007% Neon
(trace) Carbon sulphide
(traces) Hydrogen chloride
(traces) Hydrogen fluoride

Venus- the second inner planet of the Solar system with an orbital period of 224.7 Earth days. The planet got its name in honor of Venus, the goddess of love from the Roman pantheon. Her astronomical symbol is a stylized version of a lady's mirror - an attribute of the goddess of love and beauty. Venus is the third brightest object in the Earth's sky after the Sun and Moon and reaches an apparent magnitude of −4.6. Because Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, it never appears too far from the Sun: the maximum angular distance between it and the Sun is 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or some time after sunset, which gave rise to the name Evening Star or morning Star.

Venus is classified as an Earth-like planet and is sometimes called "Earth's sister" because the two planets are similar in size, gravity, and composition. However, the conditions on the two planets are very different. The surface of Venus is hidden by extremely thick clouds of sulfuric acid clouds with high reflective characteristics, which makes it impossible to see the surface in visible light (but its atmosphere is transparent to radio waves, with the help of which the planet's topography was subsequently studied). Disputes about what lies beneath Venus's thick clouds continued into the twentieth century, until many of Venus's secrets were revealed by planetary science. Venus has the densest atmosphere among other Earth-like planets, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide. This is explained by the fact that on Venus there is no carbon cycle and no organic life that could process it into biomass.

In ancient times, Venus is believed to have become so hot that the Earth-like oceans it is thought to have evaporated completely, leaving behind a desert landscape with many slab-like rocks. One hypothesis suggests that water vapor, due to the weakness magnetic field rose so high above the surface that it was carried by the solar wind into interplanetary space.

Basic information

The average distance of Venus from the Sun is 108 million km (0.723 AU). Its orbit is very close to circular - the eccentricity is only 0.0068. The period of revolution around the Sun is 224.7 days; average orbital speed - 35 km/s. The inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic plane is 3.4°.

Comparative sizes of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

Venus rotates around its axis, deviated by 2° from the perpendicular to the orbital plane, from east to west, i.e. in the direction opposite direction rotation of most planets. One revolution around its axis takes 243.02 days. The combination of these movements gives the value of a solar day on the planet 116.8 Earth days. It is interesting that Venus completes one revolution around its axis in relation to the Earth in 146 days, and the synodic period is 584 days, i.e. exactly four times longer. As a result, in every lower connection Venus faces the Earth with the same side. It is not yet known whether this is a coincidence, or whether the gravitational attraction of Earth and Venus is at work here.

Venus is quite close in size to Earth. The radius of the planet is 6051.8 km (95% of the Earth), mass - 4.87 × 10 24 kg (81.5% of the Earth), average density - 5.24 g / cm³. The acceleration of gravity is 8.87 m/s², the second escape velocity is 10.46 km/s.

Atmosphere

The wind, very weak at the surface of the planet (no more than 1 m/s), near the equator at an altitude of over 50 km intensifies to 150-300 m/s. Observations from robotic space stations have detected thunderstorms in the atmosphere.

Surface and internal structure

Internal structure of Venus

Exploration of the surface of Venus became possible with the development of radar methods. Most detailed map compiled by the American Magellan apparatus, which photographed 98% of the planet's surface. Mapping has revealed extensive elevations on Venus. The largest of them are the Land of Ishtar and the Land of Aphrodite, comparable in size to the earth's continents. Numerous craters have also been identified on the surface of the planet. They probably formed when Venus's atmosphere was less dense. A significant part of the planet's surface is geologically young (about 500 million years). 90% of the planet's surface is covered with solidified basaltic lava.

Several models offered internal structure Venus. According to the most realistic of them, Venus has three shells. The first - the crust - is approximately 16 km thick. Next is the mantle, a silicate shell that extends to a depth of about 3,300 km to the border with the iron core, the mass of which is about a quarter of the total mass of the planet. Since the planet’s own magnetic field is absent, it should be assumed that there is no movement of charged particles in the iron core - electric current, causing a magnetic field, therefore, the movement of matter in the core does not occur, that is, it is in solid state. The density at the center of the planet reaches 14 g/cm³.

It is interesting that all the details of the relief of Venus are female names, with the exception of the highest mountain range on the planet, located on Ishtar Earth near the Lakshmi Plateau and named after James Maxwell.

Relief

Craters on the surface of Venus

Image of the surface of Venus based on radar data.

Impact craters are a rare element of the Venusian landscape. There are only about 1,000 craters on the entire planet. The picture shows two craters with diameters of about 40 - 50 km. Inner area filled with lava. The "petals" around craters are areas covered with crushed rock thrown out during the explosion that formed the crater.

Observing Venus

View from Earth

Venus is easy to recognize because it is much brighter than the brightest stars. Distinctive feature the planet is its level White color. Venus, like Mercury, does not move very far from the Sun in the sky. At moments of elongation, Venus can move away from our star by a maximum of 48°. Like Mercury, Venus has periods of morning and evening visibility: in ancient times it was believed that morning and evening Venus were different stars. Venus is the third brightest object in our sky. During periods of visibility, its maximum brightness is about m = −4.4.

With a telescope, even a small one, you can easily see and observe changes in the visible phase of the planet’s disk. It was first observed in 1610 by Galileo.

Venus next to the Sun, obscured by the Moon. Shot of Clementine's apparatus

Walking across the disk of the Sun

Venus on the disk of the Sun

Venus in front of the Sun. Video

Since Venus is inner planet Solar system in relation to the Earth, its inhabitant can observe the passage of Venus across the disk of the Sun, when from the Earth through a telescope this planet appears as a small black disk against the background of a huge star. However this astronomical phenomenon- one of the rarest possible for observation from the surface of the Earth. Over the course of approximately two and a half centuries, four passages occur - two in December and two in June. The next one will happen on June 6, 2012.

The passage of Venus across the disk of the Sun was first observed on December 4, 1639 by the English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks (-) He also pre-calculated this phenomenon.

Of particular interest to science were the observations of the “phenomenon of Venus on the Sun” made by M. V. Lomonosov on June 6, 1761. This cosmic phenomenon was also calculated in advance and eagerly awaited by astronomers around the world. Its study was required to determine parallax, which made it possible to clarify the distance from the Earth to the Sun (using the method developed by the English astronomer E. Halley), which required organizing observations from different geographical points on the surface of the globe - the joint efforts of scientists from many countries.

Similar visual studies were carried out at 40 points with the participation of 112 people. On the territory of Russia, their organizer was M.V. Lomonosov, who addressed the Senate on March 27 with a report justifying the need to equip astronomical expeditions to Siberia for this purpose, petitioned for the allocation Money for this expensive undertaking, he compiled manuals for observers, etc. The result of his efforts was the direction of the expedition of N. I. Popov to Irkutsk and S. Ya Rumovsky to Selenginsk. It also cost him considerable effort to organize observations in St. Petersburg, at the Academic Observatory, with the participation of A. D. Krasilnikov and N. G. Kurganov. Their task was to observe the contacts of Venus and the Sun - the visual contact of the edges of their disks. M.V. Lomonosov, who was most interested in the physical side of the phenomenon, conducting independent observations in his home observatory, discovered a light ring around Venus.

This passage was observed all over the world, but only M.V. Lomonosov drew attention to the fact that when Venus came into contact with the disk of the Sun, a “thin, hair-like glow” appeared around the planet. The same light halo was observed during the descent of Venus from the solar disk.

M.V. Lomonosov gave the correct scientific explanation this phenomenon, considering it the result of refraction sun rays in the atmosphere of Venus. “The planet Venus,” he wrote, “is surrounded by noble air atmosphere, such (if only not more) than that which is poured around our globe.” Thus, for the first time in the history of astronomy, even a hundred years before the discovery of spectral analysis, the physical study of the planets began. At that time, almost nothing was known about the planets of the solar system. Therefore, M.V. Lomonosov considered the presence of an atmosphere on Venus as indisputable evidence of the similarity of the planets and, in particular, the similarity between Venus and Earth. The effect was seen by many observers: Chappe D'Auteroche, S. Ya. Rumovsky, L. V. Vargentin, T. O. Bergman, but only M. V. Lomonosov interpreted it correctly. In astronomy, this phenomenon of light scattering, the reflection of light rays during grazing incidence (in M.V. Lomonosov - “bump”), received its name - “ Lomonosov phenomenon»

An interesting second effect was observed by astronomers as the disk of Venus approached the outer edge of the solar disk or moved away from it. This phenomenon, also discovered by M.V. Lomonosov, was not satisfactorily interpreted, and it, apparently, should be regarded as a mirror reflection of the Sun by the atmosphere of the planet - it is especially great at small grazing angles, when Venus is near the Sun. The scientist describes it as follows:

Exploring the planet using spacecraft

Venus has been studied quite intensively using spacecraft. The first spacecraft intended to study Venus was the Soviet Venera-1. After an attempt to reach Venus with this device, launched on February 12, the Soviet devices of the Venera, Vega series, and the American Mariner, Pioneer-Venera-1, Pioneer-Venera-2, and Magellan series were sent to the planet. The Venera 9 and Venera 10 spacecraft transmitted the first photographs of the surface of Venus to Earth; "Venera-13" and "Venera-14" transmitted color images from the surface of Venus. However, the conditions on the surface of Venus are such that none of the spacecraft worked on the planet for more than two hours. In 2016, Roscosmos plans to launch a more durable probe that will operate on the surface of the planet for at least a day.

additional information

Satellite of Venus

Venus (like Mars and Earth) has a quasi-satellite, asteroid 2002 VE68, orbiting the Sun in such a way that there is an orbital resonance between it and Venus, as a result of which it remains close to the planet over many orbital periods.

Terraforming Venus

Venus in different cultures

Venus in literature

• In the novel “Leap into Nothing” by Alexander Belyaev, the heroes, a handful of capitalists, flee from the world proletarian revolution into space, land on Venus and settle there. The planet is presented in the novel approximately as the Earth in the Mesozoic era.
• In Boris Lyapunov’s science fiction essay “Closest to the Sun,” earthlings set foot on Venus and Mercury for the first time and study them.
• In Vladimir Vladko’s novel “The Argonauts of the Universe,” a Soviet geological exploration expedition is sent to Venus.
• In Georgy Martynov’s novel-trilogy “Starfarers”, the second book - “Sister of the Earth” - is dedicated to the adventures of Soviet cosmonauts on Venus and getting to know its intelligent inhabitants.
• In the series of stories by Victor Saparin: “Heavenly Kulu”, “Return of the Roundheads” and “The Disappearance of Loo”, the astronauts who landed on the planet establish contact with the inhabitants of Venus.
• In the story “Planet of Storms” by Alexander Kazantsev (novel “Grandchildren of Mars”), cosmonaut researchers encounter the animal world and traces of intelligent life on Venus. Filmed by Pavel Klushantsev as “Planet of Storms”.
• In the novel by the Strugatsky Brothers “The Country of Crimson Clouds” Venus was the second planet after Mars, which they are trying to colonize, and they send the planet “Hius” with a crew of scouts to the area of ​​​​deposits radioactive substances called "Uranium Golconda".
• In Sever Gansovsky’s story “Saving December,” the last two observers of earthlings meet December, the animal on which the natural balance on Venus depended. The Decembers were considered completely exterminated and people were ready to die, but leave the Decembers alive.
• The novel “The Splash of Starry Seas” by Evgeniy Voiskunsky and Isaiah Lukodyanov tells about reconnaissance cosmonauts, scientists, and engineers who, in difficult conditions of space and human society, colonize Venus.
• In Alexander Shalimov’s story “Planet of Fogs,” expedition members sent on a laboratory ship to Venus try to solve the mysteries of this planet.
• In the stories of Ray Bradbury, the planet's climate is presented as extremely rainy (it either rains always or stops once every ten years)
• Robert Heinlein's novels Between the Planets, Podkain the Martian, Space Cadet, and The Logic of Empire depict Venus as a gloomy, swampy world reminiscent of the Amazon Valley during the rainy season. Venus is home to intelligent inhabitants that resemble seals or dragons.
• In Stanislaw Lem's novel The Astronauts, earthlings find remains on Venus lost civilization, who was going to destroy life on Earth. Filmed as The Silent Star.
• Francis Karsak's “Flight of the Earth”, along with the main plot, describes a colonized Venus, the atmosphere of which has undergone physical and chemical treatment, as a result of which the planet has become suitable for human life.
• Henry Kuttner's science fiction novel Fury tells of the terraforming of Venus by colonists from a lost Earth.

Literature

• Koronovsky N. N. Morphology of the surface of Venus // Soros Educational Journal.
• Burba G. A. Venus: Russian transcription of names // Laboratory of Comparative Planetology GEOKHI, May 2005.

see also

Links

• Pictures taken by Soviet spacecraft

Notes

1. Williams, David R. Venus Fact Sheet. NASA (April 15, 2005). Retrieved October 12, 2007.
2. Venus: Facts & Figures. NASA. Retrieved April 12, 2007.
3. Space Topics: Compare the Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, The Moon, and Mars. Planetary Society. Retrieved April 12, 2007.
4. Caught in the wind from the Sun. ESA (Venus Express) (2007-11-28). Retrieved July 12, 2008.
5. College.ru
6. RIA Agency
7. Venus had oceans and volcanoes in the past - scientists RIA News (2009-07-14).
8. M.V. Lomonosov writes: “...Mr. Kurganov, from his calculations, learned that this memorable passage of Venus across the Sun will happen again in May 1769 on the 23rd day of the old calm, which, although it is doubtful to see in St. Petersburg, only in many places near the local parallel, and especially further to the north, may be witnesses. For the beginning of the introduction will follow here at 10 o’clock in the afternoon, and the speech at 3 o’clock in the afternoon; will apparently pass along the upper half of the Sun at a distance from its center of approximately 2/3 of the solar half-diameter. And since 1769, after a hundred and five years, this phenomenon apparently occurs again. of the same 1769 October 29th day, the same passage of the planet Mercury across the Sun will be visible only in South America" - M. V. Lomonosov “The Appearance of Venus on the Sun...”
9. Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov. Selected works in 2 volumes. M.: Science. 1986