Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, almost Earth's size but with a crushing, scorching atmosphere.
Venus is the planet most similar to Earth in size, but very different in conditions. It is wrapped in clouds of sulfuric acid and an atmosphere of carbon dioxide about 90 times as dense as Earth's air at the surface. A runaway greenhouse effect heats the surface to about 465 °C, hotter than Mercury.
The thick atmosphere acts as a shield. Small meteoroids burn up or break apart before they reach the ground, so Venus has very few craters smaller than a few kilometres across. Its larger craters are fairly evenly spread and few in number, suggesting much of the surface is only a few hundred million years old, perhaps resurfaced by volcanoes.
No meteorites from Venus are known. Its strong gravity and dense air make it very hard for impacts to throw rocks into space. The Soviet Venera landers, which survived on the surface for up to about two hours, gave our only direct look at its rocks.
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Level: Beginner Ages 7 and up