Who Discovered Venus?

Although we don't know for sure, the person who discovered Venus was most likely a caveman. It can be seen with the naked eye before sunrise and after sunset so there wasn't much discovery that needed to be done.  

Venus is located between Earth and Mercury and is the second planet away from the sun. It has a thick atmosphere, mostly comprised of carbon dioxide, with dense clouds that are blown by high winds in the upper atmosphere. 

These clouds, made of sulfuric acid, create a greenhouse effect, so Venus’s temperature can reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a terrestrial planet, along with Mercury, Earth, and Mars, and is made mostly of silicate rock.  It has no moons.

Goddess of Love

Venus bears the name of the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Perhaps that name was chosen because it is the brightest planet in the sky. Early man did not realize that the “star” that appeared both before sunrise and after sunset was the same, therefore, they had two names for it: Oesphorus for the morning star and Hesperus for the evening star. 

Surface Features

Life as we know it cannot survive on Venus. This is due to the high temperature and surface pressure. Venus has a surface pressure more than ninety times greater than Earth’s. There is also evidence of much volcanic activity in both past and present times.

There are very deep rift valleys and high mountains on the surface of venus.  There are also fine plains, craters, canyons, and lava flows. Most of the planet is comprised of plains.

Orbit and Rotation

Venus’s orbit around the sun takes about 225 days. Its rotation is not the same as most other planets. It rotates from east to west, so that the sun rises in the west. Its rotation is also very slow in comparison to other planets. A day on Venus would be the same as 243 days on Earth.

Who Discovered Venus?

It is possible that the person who discovered Venus was perplexed when he noticed a black disc moving across the Sun. This happens when Venus moves directly between the sun and the Earth. It is called the "Transit of Venus."

How often it appears is even more perplexing. The occurence of the black disc happens two times very close together, then more than 100 years passes before it makes another appearance. 

This is a 243 year cycle, with sightings occurring with these lapses between sightings: 8 - 121.5 - 8 - 105.5. To explain further, you would see it one year, again in eight years, and then you would have to wait 121.5 years. At that point, it would appear, reappear in eight years, and you would have to wait 105.5 years for the cycle to begin again. You will have an opportunity to see this happen again on June 6, 2012.

Exploration

The person, or persons, who discovered Venus lived in ancient times and had no way of finding out more information about it except through observation. As of 2010, we still have not been able to see the surface of Venus from Earth, even with powerful telescopes, because of the sulfuric acid clouds in Venus’s atmosphere. The clouds block light, which keeps us from seeing the surface.

In the 1960s, exploration of Venus began in earnest.

• The Mariner 2, an unmanned probe from the U.S., did a fly-by in 1962 and took various readings.
• The Soviets sent two probes to Venus in 1966 and their Venera 7 actually landed on Venus in 1970.
• The first photographs using ultraviolet filters were taken by Mariner 10 in 1974. These showed features of the clouds in much detail.
• Between 1975 and 1984, a total of 10 spacecrafts explored Venus, taking photographs, measuring temperatures, mapping its surface, and making other scientific observations.
• The U.S. space probe Magellan mapped the planet’s surface, in great detail, using radar from orbit in 1990.

Today the details of objects as small as 330 feet across can now been seen on Venus from the images sent back to Earth. Even with all this information, we still do not know who discovered Venus.