Venus

Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus at a distance of 108,200,000 kilometers is the second closest planet to the Sun while its diameter of 12,104 kilometers makes it the sixth largest.

Comparisons between Earth and our closest neighbor are inevitable, after all the two planets are roughly the same size and mass, but here real similarities end. Venus has no moon and unlike Earth is completely enshrouded in cloud. Early preconceptions took this to mean that Venus was a wet planet perhaps similar to Earth during its Jurassic period, humid, warm, damp and covered in lush jungle; nothing could have been further from the truth.

Venus has been revealed to be an exceptionally uninviting place. Atmospheric pressure at the surface is equivalent to that found at a depth of 1 kilometer in Earth's oceans. The atmosphere itself is mainly carbon dioxide and the clouds are composed of sulphuric acid. This combined with a mean surface temperature of 465 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt lead, makes the likelihood of finding life of any kind slim indeed

A steady succession of spacecraft beginning with Mariner 2 in 1962 have visited the planet: Venera 7 landed on the surface and sent back detailed images, Magellan using radar imaging compiled detailed maps, Messenger made two flybys on its way to Mercury and ESA’s Venus Express, presently in orbit, is analyzing data about the composition and temperature of Venus' atmosphere with unprecedented accuracy.

JAXA's AKATSUKI (Planet-C) a spacecraft originaly slated to rendevous with Venus December 2010 will, after failing to achieve orbit the first time, apparently get a second chance (according to JAXA officials perhaps as early as 2015). If succesful the probe will continue with its mission complementingt ESA's Venus Express, its job detect and observe such things as lightning, airglow and ground level volcanic activity, its overall objective to gain a better understanding of the atmosphere and the mechanisms that control atmospheric circulation. [1]

[1] Launched together with AKATSUKI was IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of The Sun) a solar-sail experiment, its mission to ascertain whether a spacecraft can fly solely by solar powered sail and that thin film solar cells can generate power.

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