The interior of Venus.
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The Interior of 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.
Because Venus is so close to Earth in the solar system and is about the
same size, we would expect that it would have been composed
initially of somewhat similar materials, would have experienced a
somewhat similar history,
and would have a somewhat similar interior. We now know, however, that
there are differences between Earth and Venus, not only in it's
atmosphere but also on it's
surface.
The varied terrain
of Venus, including volcanoes, mountains, craters, and lava flows, suggests
that the planet was once, and perhaps still is, geologically active.
Scientists are unsure whether volcanic activity continues on the planet,
although we know it did in the past, and still have basic questions
about the interior of Venus, such as the thickness of the
lithosphere.
Nonetheless, the interior of Venus is probably similar to Earth's
interior, with a
partly molten metallic core, a
rocky mantle, and a crust. The extremely slow rotation of the planet
-- at 243 Earth days even longer than it's orbital period around the
Sun, about 225 Earth days -- may explain the lack of a planetary
magnetic field such as those
exhibited by many of the other planets, including
Earth.
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