Venus
second planet from the Solar System, tellurian and very similar to Earth
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. Similar in size and mass to Earth, Venus has no liquid water, and its atmosphere is far thicker and denser than that of any other rocky body in the Solar System. The atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide and has a thick cloud layer of sulfuric acid that spans the whole planet. At the mean surface level, the atmosphere reaches a temperature of 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F), making it the hottest planet in the solar system and also a pressure 92 times greater than Earth's at sea level, turning the lowest layer of the atmosphere into a supercritical fluid. From Earth, Venus is visible as a star-like point of light, appearing brighter than any other natural point of light in the sky, as either the brightest "morning star" or "evening star". It was also given the poetic name Ēarendel in Old English, meaning "ray of light" along with the two previous epithets.
Venus orbits closer to the Sun than the Earth does. The orbits of Venus and Earth make the two planets approach each other in synodic periods of 1.6 years. In the course of this, Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet. In interplanetary spaceflight from Earth, Venus is frequently used as a waypoint for gravity assists, offering a more economical route allowing spacecraft to save fuel.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Venus” is second planet from the Solar System, tellurian and very similar to Earth. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Venus, second and planet, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “second planet from the Solar System, tellurian and very similar to Earth” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q313. VIAF identifies the subject as 316741882. The Library of Congress control number is sh85142768. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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This entry incorporates text from “Venus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.