The Hunt. From the campground or visitor parking lot, walk west on the road about 200 feet and then head north through the forest to the cache.
Name. Venus, goddess of love and beauty, is the one female whose name was given to an important planet. Her symbol represents a hand mirror. Venus (or the Greek Aphrodite) is commonly known as the "evening star" or the "morning star" depending on which side of the sun it happens to be.
Factoids. Venus is the brightest and easiest planet to see with the naked eye. It shines with a brilliant white light, so bright that it can cast faint shadows at night, and it can be seen in the day under the right conditions. Its brilliance is due to the high reflectivity (albedo) of dense sulfuric clouds which obscure the surface. Venus comes closer to the Earth than any other planet, within 26 million miles.
Venus is the brightest object in our sky, except for the Sun and Moon. People once imagined Venus as a Garden of Eden with lush vegetation, sparkling streams, and life. They called it Earth's twin because of its similar size, mass and density. In reality, it would be hard to imagine a more inhospitable place. The upper clouds of poisonous sulfuric acid swirl at speeds almost three times faster than a hurricane, and beneath the acid clouds an extremely dense carbon dioxide atmosphere exerts pressure as strong as that which exists a kilometer below the surface of the oceans on Earth. The surface may have had water at one time, but a runaway greenhouse effect pushed surface temperatures over 860°F, making Venus the hottest planet. Ongoing volcanic activity adds to the hostile environment.
- Distance from Sun = 0.72 AU (67 million miles)
- Diameter = 0.95 Earths (7,520 miles)
- Length of year in Earth days = 243
- Satellites = 0
- Mean surface temperature = 735 K (865 F)
- Weight of 100 pounds on surface = 88
Exploration. Venus has been the goal of many spacecraft since 1961, by Soviet, U.S., European and Japanese agencies. There have been flybys, orbiting satellites, probes and landers. Extensive, detailed radar mapping of the surface was done by the Magellan spacecraft in the early 1990s. Future missions, including manned ones, have been proposed.
The planet's proximity has also allowed much observation from Earth. A pattern of transits across the face of the Sun by Venus was identified in the 1600s and became an important tool to determine the size of the astronomical unit and the Solar System.
