If you get a chance, step outside and check out that beautiful Crescent Moon. That very bright “star” to the lower right is the planet Venus. She sure shines bright!

Named after the goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky besides the Moon. Earth is like a twin in size and is the closest planet to Venus in the solar system.

Oddly, Venus is the only planet that rotates backwards, relative to the other planets. That means the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. That’d be different! (ha)

Venus also rotates very, very slowly. She takes longer to rotate than she does to orbit the sun. A planetary rotation takes 243 days, while a solar orbit takes 225 days.

CO2 trapped in Venus’ atmosphere of thick sulfur dioxide clouds makes that planet the hottest in the solar system. In fact, she’s hot enough to melt lead.

So, Venus may be beautiful but you can only look, don’t dare touch.

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