Quote:Sir O
the space program failed you,
Venus is not a ball of gas.
Just has a very dense atmosphere
See what I get for posting before noon. I am teh stupid, but at least I learned something...
[i]I have looked through several astronomy texts, and there are some
guesses about the internal composition of Venus. We will have to wait for a
lander mission (almost certain to be unmanned, given the hostile Venusian
environment) designed to probe the interior before we know for sure. First,
the overall density is 5.24 grams per cubic centimeter, compared with Earth's
5.52 grams per cubic centimeter. (We can measure the physical dimensions of
the planet, and by noting its gravitational influence on an orbiting satellite
like the Pioneer Venus Orbiter, we can calculate Venus' mass. Then Density =
Mass/Volume.) This tells us that the internal composition and structure of
the two planets may well be similar, and current theories of planet formation
would support this. Venus has almost no magnetic field, which suggests that
it may not have a liquid iron core, as the Earth does (although this may also
be simply because Venus rotates so much more slowly than the Earth). The USSR
landed several probes on the surface since the 1970's which measured (among
other things) rock and soil composition. These probes found granite-like
materials and basaltic rock. The latter is almost certainly due to lava flows
(which may still be going on). In sum, current best guess is that the
composition of Venus is similar to that of Earth, though probably not
identical to it. I got the above information from: "Exploration of the
Universe" by Abell, Morrison, and Wolff; "The Solar System" by Encrenaz and
Bibring; and "The Solar System" by B.W. Jones (you may need to go to a
university library to find books like these).
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