This image shows a realistic picture of the surface of Venus. The surface topography is based on actual data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft, and the colors represent what scientists believe our eyes would see on Venus. The inset (left) shows the full disk of Venus as photographed by NASA's Pioneer Venus Orbiter. This photograph was taken with cameras sensitive to ultraviolet light; with visible light, cloud features cannot be distinguished from the general haze. (Image above from the Voyage scale model solar system, developed by Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA. Image by David P. Anderson, Southern Methodist University © 2001.)

We find the second planet from the Sun, Venus, just a few steps beyond Mercury in our model. Because Venus and the Earth are nearly identical in size--both pinheads in the model solar system--Venus is sometimes called our sister planet.

Venus is covered in dense clouds, and because it is not much closer to the Sun than the Earth science fiction writers once speculated that Venus might be a lush, tropical paradise. We now know that an extreme greenhouse effect bakes its surface to an incredible 450°C (about 850°F) and traps heat so effectively that nighttime offers no relief--day and night, Venus is hotter than a pizza oven. All the while, the thick atmosphere bears down on the surface with a pressure equivalent to that nearly a kilometer (0.6 mile) beneath the ocean surface on Earth.

Besides the crushing pressure and searing temperature, a visitor to Venus would feel the corrosive effects of sulfuric acid and other toxic chemicals in its atmosphere. Far from being a beautiful sister planet to Earth, Venus resembles a traditional view of hell.

This map shows Venus's location in the Voyage scale model solar system on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The dot at the top of the page (next to title) shows Venus's size on the scale.