Venus, along with the inner planets Mercury, Earth and Mars, is classified as a terrestrial planet (q.v.), one of the class of planets made up of solid, rocky material like the Earth, and distinct from the outer, gaseous planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto may be more like one of the icy Jovian satellites. Among the planets in the terrestrial class, Venus is the most Earth-like. Venus and Earth have very similar mean density, bulk composition and size.
Venus as an astronomical object
Venus is the second planet from the Sun in our solar system (Plate 6). It moves in a nearly circular orbit at a mean distance of 0.723 AU and a period of 224.7 Earth days. As seen from Earth, it is the brightest object in the sky, after the Moon. It appears as a ‘morning star’ before superior conjunction and as an ‘evening star’ setting later than the Sun after superior conjunction. The greatest angular distance from the Sun or maximum elongation angle is about 47°. Venus is most distant...
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Bibliography
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Saunders, R.S. (1997). Venus . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_436
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_436
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