Mercury

The Planet Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love, probably because it shines so much and stands out in the night sky.

It is the only Planet that is named after a female.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is the second brightest in the sky after the Moon.

It orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days compared to the Earth’s 365 days.

Venus has the longest rotation period of any planet in the Solar System and it rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets, too.

It does not have any natural satellites.

It is the second largest terrestrial planet and some people refer to it as the Earth’s sister planet as they have a similar size and mass.

It is 108.2million km from the Sun.

It has 460.2 million km surface area.

The thick clouds on Venus reflect most of the sunlight that reaches it back into space – that is why it is so bright. Because it is the brightest,  it can be seen by the naked eye often a few hours after sunset or before sunrise.

Venus has a central iron core and rocky mantle, it is a similar composition to the Earth. However its atmosphere is 96 per cent carbon dioxide and 3 per cent nitrogen and other gases.

It was formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago, when the solar system was a cloud of dusts and gases.

The inner core formed first like the Earth and then other elements formed a crust over the years.

The surface of Venus has is own unique geology and has large meteor craters, volcanoes, erosions and also some sedimentation land forms. However,  these have been smoothed somewhat by lava flows and by the corrosive atmosphere.

In Astrology Venus rules Taurus which brings love,  friendship and all the things that make life worthwhile.

Mars is known as the red planet –  this colour is caused by the iron oxide on the surface of the planet in its soil.

It is the he fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System after Mercury.

The Romans named the planet after their god of war.

It has a thin atmosphere and is mostly composed of carbon dioxide.

The planet is one-sixth the size of Earth and estimated to be over 142 million miles from the sun.

It takes 24 hours, 37 mins and 22 seconds to rotate once on its axis hence this is a Mars day.

Mars does take twice the time the Earth takes to complete a full revolution around the sun.

It has its own weather pattern having seasonal changes and has polar ice caps.

On Mars the temperature is on average minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In winter near the poles it can go down to minus 195 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Earth has 21 per cent of oxygen Mars only has 0.13 per cent. It has 95.3 per cent of the gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

There is also nitrogen and argon and small amounts of water and methane.

Mars has the tallest mountain in the solar system called Olympus Mons. It s more than 21 km high and is about three times taller than Mount Everest and is more than 600 km in diameter.

Because of less gravity you would weigh less than twice your weight on Mars.

As the oxygen is so thin you would not be able to breath on Mars without a spacesuit and an oxygen cylinder.

The month of March is derived from the name Mars.

The first aircraft to reach Mars took 228 days to get there.

Mars can be spotted by the naked eye if conditions are right due to its reddish colour.