While a lot of facts about Venus are known, its actual discoverer is unknown. Among ancient civilizations it was known as the morning star. Pythagoras was the first to realize that both the morning and evening star were the same entity.

Facts and Figures

Venus has a perihelion of 107,600,000 and the aphelion is 108,900,000. The mean is 108,000,000. The rotation is approximately 243 days with a revolution of 0.52 years. It has no satellites and has an average temperature of 459 degrees Celsius. In terms of size, Venus is about the same as Earth.

Surface and Geology

One of the most basic facts about Venus is its size is similar to
Earth. It is smaller by only 650 km. Its mass is also 80% that of Earth. However, Venus’ geological surface is very different. More than 75% of the surface is littered with volcanic plains. There are also several lobate plains in the area.

There are two large landmasses, one on the northern hemisphere and one at the equator’s south side. The northern land is Ishtar Terra. It is about the size of Australia and home to Maxwell Montes. It rises 11 km from the ground and is the highest mountain on Venus.

The southern landmass is called Aphrodite Terra. It is about the size of Latin America. It is characterized by fractures, fissures and numerous fault lines. Other interesting facts about Venus are the farra, which are flat topped volcanic surfaces.

These are about 60 km across and rise more than 1000 m high. There are also unusual surfaces called arachnoids and coronae. The former resemble spider webs and the latter circular in appearance.

Atmosphere

The planet’s atmosphere is composed of 96% carbon dioxide. Other elements are nitrogen, sulfur oxide and argon. It also has elements of helium, neon, hydrogen fluoride and many others. The pressure is 90 times greater than that on Earth. This has resulted in surface temperatures of over 560 Celsius (over 850 F).

One of the most puzzling facts about Venus is that it is much hotter than Mercury, this despite being farther away from the Sun. The prevailing theory is that originally it had an Earth like atmosphere. For reasons unknown the water dissipated and a greenhouse effect occurred.

This led to the increase in gases in the atmosphere. Studies have also shown that the atmosphere on the planet does not change regardless of whether it is day or night. Wind movement is slow but it carries a lot of force.

This is due to the amount of gas and dust in the atmosphere. However there are 300 kph winds that traverse the planet every six Earth days or so.

The cloud cover is permanent, so the surface is not well illuminated. If the gases were taken out, Venus would look very much like the Earth.

A lot of the basic facts about Venus were determined during the days of the Cold War as the US and Russia sent orbiters around it. Today research is still ongoing although it is done in a more cooperative manner among nations.

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There have been many movies that have been made that depict the planet Mars as a source of alien life. Some movies even depict Martians attacking planet Earth. There are many who ask who discovered Mars and how it was discovered. The truth is that for reasons quite obvious we may never know who exactly it was who discovered this planet.

God of War

Mars may be familiar to some as being called the God of war. Both the Greeks and the Romans called the planet as the God of War. The Greeks called the planet as Ares while the Romans called it Mars, but both symbolize the same deity. Since the planet Mars is really visible to the naked eye it was discovered even before any recorded history. Thus we really cannot tell who discovered Mars.

For thousands of years Mars has been visible to humans as a red dot floating in the night sky. There are certain times in the year when the planet came closer to ours. When such times come it would appear like a red burning coal in the sky at night. This of course would arouse such terror among ancient peoples and sky watchers.

The Egyptians even called it Har decher, which means The Red One. The Babylonians called it Nergal which simply means the Star of Death. Though they may have come up with names for this planet, we can’t credit any of these people as the ones who discovered Mars.

The Babylonians discovered the planet in 400 BC, however, the very first people or individual who discovered Mars would have observed it much earlier. They made thorough astronomical observations on the planet. They were even able to make sophisticated mathematical calculations about it. They were able to predict particular astronomical occurrences like eclipses for example. However, their objective for such work is dedicated for both religious and calendrical purposes.

Modern Observations

Though it may seem that the Babylonians have made thorough observations about the planet we can’t credit them as the ones who discovered Mars. In 1609 Galileo was able to observe the planet for the first time using a telescope. We can say that he was the first one who ever made observations about the planet for purely astronomical purposes.

Christian Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, was able to determine in 1659 how long a day would last in Mars. In 1704 Giancomo Miraldi was able to spot polar caps on Mars’ poles. In 1840 German astronomers were able to create the first complete map of this planet.

Further discoveries came along as astronomers continued to observe the planet. Moons, canals, and meteorite were soon to be found in later years. Since the planet is visible to the naked eye we can’t really credit a single person as the one who discovered Mars. The planet has been observed even before recorded history.

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Noted Greek researcher Eratosthenes postulated that the earth rotated on an axis and even was a certain degree tilted as it did so. He also estimated the diameter of the planet. All these were added vital facts about earth’s discovery during that time. However, all these “facts” were still considered hearsay by some people until a proof beyond doubt is established. One day, an ambitious expedition around the world put all doubts to rest. It established the above theories as facts.

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Ancient people  believed that the earth was flat. Among the proponents then was a Greek named Homer. They could not imagine earth being in any other shape. Hinting of a circular earth would have earned the cruel ridicule, if not the ire, of intellectuals then. The only problem was how to explain getting to the other flat side of the earth. Some said sailing to the extreme end of a flat earth would cause ships to fall into a deep abyss. Furthermore, where did sea water flow to upon reaching earth’s extreme ends?

Plato, a Greek philosopher, put one of the most important facts about earth’s discovery–his theory of a spherical earth. With this theory, the planet would have no extreme ends and would have a continuous circumference without beginning or end. Pythagoras, a mathematician, later confirmed the theory: the earth was round.

In the 16th century, an ambitious sea expedition was made by Ferdinand Magellan. Born in Portugal, he later acquired Spanish citizenship and served the king of Spain. By circumnavigating the earth, he proved it to be round, once and for all.

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