The interior of Venus.
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Windows to the Universe original image
Inside Venus
Venus is a slightly smaller than the Earth, with a diameter 95% that of
Earth (12,103 km) and a mass 81% that of Earth. If we could walk around
on the surface of the planet (without being killed by the toxic blast
furnace of an
atmosphere), gravity would be close to
that on the
surface of Earth.
The interior of Venus is probably similar to
Earth's
interior. Venus,
like Earth, is one of the terrestrial planets and is
made of rock and metal. It probably has a partly molten metallic core, a
rocky mantle, and a crust. The planet rotates very slowly, taking more
than 243 Earth days to spin once on it's axis (even longer than the time
it takes for Venus to orbit the Sun, about 225 Earth days).
This may be the reason the planet
doesn't have a magnetic field like
many of the other planets, including
Earth.
The varied terrain
of Venus, including volcanoes, mountains, craters, and lava flows, suggests
that the planet was once, and perhaps still is, geologically active.
But basic questions about the interior of Venus remain, such as the
thickness of the lithosphere.
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