time to travel to venus

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How Long Does it Take to Get to Venus?

[/caption] Although humans have never made the voyage, spacecraft from Earth have visited Venus. So, how long does it take to get to Venus from Earth?

The first spacecraft ever launched towards Venus was the Soviet Venera 1 spacecraft. It was launched on February 12, 1961 on course to Venus. Unfortunately, scientists lost contact with the spacecraft on February 17th. Mission controllers didn’t get a chance to put in a course correction that would have directed it closer to Venus, so it’s thought to have passed within 100,000 km of the planet on May 19th. That’s a total time of 97 days; just over 3 months.

The first successful Venus flyby was NASA’s Mariner 2. This spacecraft was launched on August 8th, 1962 and made a successful flyby on December 14, 1962. So that calculates to 110 days from launch to arrival at Venus.

The most recent spacecraft to fly to Venus was ESA’s Venus Express. It was launched on November 9th, 2005, and took 153 days to make the journey to Venus.

Why is there such a big difference in travel times to Venus? It all comes down to the launch speed and trajectory. Both Earth and Venus are traveling on orbits around the Sun. You don’t just point your spacecraft directly at Venus and fire your rockets. You have to travel on a transfer orbit that moves you between Earth’s orbit and Venus’ orbit, catching up with Venus, ideally going into orbit. To make the trip with a smaller, less expensive rocket, you have to make a longer trip, taking more time.

Humans have never made the trip to Venus, but maybe someday they will; although, the planet would be extremely unpleasant to try and land on. Maybe just a flyby would be nice.

We have written many articles about Venus for Universe Today. Here’s an article about Venus’ wet, volcanic past , and here’s an article about how Venus might have had continents and oceans in the ancient past.

Want more information on Venus? Here’s a link to Hubblesite’s News Releases about Venus , and here’s NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide to Venus.

We have recorded a whole episode of Astronomy Cast that’s only about planet Venus. Listen to it here, Episode 50: Venus .

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The Planets

How long would it take to get to Venus?

Venus is a strange but charming planet. It portrays much of what we envisage as a hostile, alien world. An absent magnetic field, toxic atmosphere and days that last longer than years. But despite this skin of hostility, there are data that lead some astrobiologists to hypothesise that clouds in the atmosphere may actually be able to host simple life.

A planet worthy of further study at least perhaps? As our understanding of the solar system develops, and technologies advance, could Venus be worth another visit, and just how long would it take to get to Venus? Let’s Explore

Venus – Quick Facts

• Distance From The Sun:  108,200,000 km (67,232,363 mi)
• Radius:  6,052 km (3,761 mi)
• Temperature:  438 to 482°C (820 to 900 °F)
• Day length:  243.1 Earth days
• Year length:  224.7 Earth days
• Number of moons:  0
• Closest Distance to Earth: – As close as 41 Million km in inferior conjunction.
• Furthest distance to Earth: – As far as 257 million km at superior conjunction.

How Far Is Earth From Venus?

The closest that Earth and Venus approach each other is when Venus is at its furthest position from the sun ( aphelion ) and Earth is at its closest ( perihelion ), with both planets on the same side of the Sun. This is known as an inferior conjunction and happens roughly once every 584 days. As both planets have elliptical orbits, it is when they are at inferior conjunction at the thinnest part of their orbits that they are truly at their closest.

At it’s farthest, Venus can be as far as 257 million km from Earth on average. At it’s closest, it can be as far as 41 million km from Earth. As the orbit of Venus and Earth does change slightly over time, these closest and farthest distances expand and contract over time.

How Long Would It Take To Get To Venus?

Mission flight times to Venus have varied across different missions. If the aim is simply to get there as quickly as possible while being able to observe, this can be achieved within about 3 months, as with the Mariner 2 mission. But if the goal is to get close enough to enter orbit safely, then this takes longer.

As with travelling to Mercury , because Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, and objects speed up as they approach the Sun, some of that speed needs to be edged off for orbit to be achieved.

What Is The Shortest Trip?

The shortest successful trip any vessel from Earth has taken so far to reach Venus, was 109/110 days. This was achieved with the Mariner 2 mission which conducted the first successful flyby of Venus. It has been estimated that the Russian Venera 1 spacecraft did reach Venus quicker, at 97 days. However, Venera 1 lost contact with Earth and was not able to be adjusted to pass closer to the planet. This mission was a failure.

The more complex the mission the longer the flight time. These fast missions here were both flybys and could be launched at speed and without the need to slow down to enter a comfortable orbit. Later missions that are more complex have had a longer flight time. Such as the Venus Express mission which had a flight time of 153 days.

How Often Does The Closest Approach Occur?

The close approach between Earth and Venus occurs every 584 days. Interestingly, while Venus is the closest planet to Earth in terms of the alignment of planets in the Solar System , the planet Mercury is actually closer to Earth for more of the time than Venus. That is because Mercury has a much shorter orbital period of the Sun. It spends more time on the same side of the Sun as Earth and reaches inferior conjunction with Earth much more frequently than Venus.

Missions To Venus – All Missions Past, Present And Proposed

There have been lots of missions to Venus. Lots of successful missions but also plenty of failures. In the 1960’s when the space race was in full throttle, there were 5 successful and 13 unsuccessful missions to Venus. All conducted between the fiercely competitive Soviet Union and USA. The USA did have a far more successful ratio of mission success, but also far fewer launches.

From 1970 onward missions to Venus have been far more successful with agency’s learning well from previous setbacks. The USSR in particular sent lots of missions to Venus. When we think of the early space race its common to think of NASA and the Apollo missions, but the USSR in many respects were every bit as ambitious in space.

Successful Missions To Venus So Far

Despite the popularity and highly publicised missions on the red planet, it is Venus that is our most visited cosmic neighbor. There have been more successful and unsuccessful missions to Venus than any other planet in the Solar System. Here are the successful ones so far!

Venus As A Springboard To Other Planets

As well as the multitude of missions sent to observe Venus, the planet has also been used to aid in sending craft to other planets. Venus has been used in many missions to help correct flight path and velocity in sending craft out into the Solar System, and also for slowing craft down on approach to Mercury. This process is known as a gravity assist, and here are those missions.

Failed Missions To Venus

Missions to Venus got off to a rocky start. Most of the early missions in the 1960’s failed to get off the ground or out of low earth orbit. But with each failure came a lesson, an opportunity to adapt. Such is the nature of pioneering. These failures led the way to later successes.

Future Missions To Venus

Here are missions that are in current development for launch over the next decade. As well as these projects in development, there are a further 10 missions at proposal or concept stage across the various space agencies.

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• How Long Would It Take To Travel To Each Planet?

Our solar system is home to eight individual planets . Moving outwards from the sun , they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Some of these worlds are far closer than others, and the time it would take to travel to each planet is different for every one of them. Just how long would it take to travel to each planet?

Mercury and Venus

How long it would take to travel to the planets is dependent upon a number of factors, such as the route you take, the spacecraft you use, and where the planets are located in their respective orbits . To simplify things, we will assume that the route you take is a direct one and that the planets are at their closest approach to one another. Furthermore, we will assume that any spacecraft we use to travel to the planets is as fast as the New Horizons spacecraft, which happens to be one of the fastest human-made objects ever built. At its fastest, New Horizons reached a speed of about 50,000-miles per hour (80,000-kilometres per hour). Since Mercury and Venus are the closest planets to Earth , the time it would take to travel to them will be the shortest. At its closest approach, Mercury is about 48-million miles (77-million kilometres) from Earth. To calculate time, we simply divide distance by velocity, so in this case we divide 48-million miles by 50,000-miles per hour, giving us 960-hours of travel time. Divide this by 24-hours, and we get the number of days it would take to get to Mercury, which ends up being 40-days. When Venus is at its closest approach to Earth, it is about 38-million miles (61-million kilometres) away, and so it would take about 32-days to get to Venus. 

Mars is the most frequently visited planet in our solar system. While humans have yet to land on the Martian surface, space agencies have sent a number of rovers , landers, and satellites to study the Red Planet. During its closest approach, Mars is about 51-million miles (82-million kilometres) away from Earth. Moving at a speed of 50,000-miles per hour, it would take you about 42.5-days to reach Mars. 

Jupiter and Saturn

Beyond the orbit of Mars is the realm of the gas giants . Beyond Mars, the gas giants are much further away than their rocky counterparts. Jupiter is the closest gas giant to Earth, yet even at its closest approach it is still 367-million miles (590-million kilometres) away from our world. At this distance and moving at a speed of 50,000-miles per hour, it would take you 306-days to reach Jupiter. Saturn , meanwhile, is much further away than even Jupiter. At its closest approach to Earth, Saturn is 746-million miles (1.2-billion kilometres) away. At this distance, it would take you 622-days or 1.7-years to reach Saturn. 

Uranus and Neptune

Beyond Jupiter and Saturn are the two outermost planets of our solar system, Uranus and Neptune . These two worlds are so far away from us that they are the only two planets not visible to the naked eye. At its closest approach to the Earth, Uranus is located a staggering 1.7-billion miles (2.7-billion kilometres) away. Travelling in a spacecraft moving at 50,000-miles per hour, it would take you 1,416-days or 3.88-years to reach Uranus. When Neptune is at its closest approach, the distance between Earth and Neptune is 2.7-billion miles (4.3-billion kilometres), and so it would take 2,250-days or 6.16-years.

Planetary Travel Time

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How Far Away is Venus?

Venus is the right brightest planet in the night sky. In fact, apart from the sun and moon, it is the brightest object in the sky!

The sun is very bright because it’s a huge burning ball of gas. The moon is bright because it’s incredibly close, but Venus is bright for two reasons: firstly it has a highly reflective atmosphere and, secondly, it is closer to us than any other large body except the moon.

But, exactly how close is Venus to Earth? 

Let’s find out.

The Distance of Venus Changes Over Time

All planets follow an elliptical orbit around the sun . An ellipse is like a squashed circle. The Venusian orbit is the most circular of all the planets, so the times when we are closest or furthest from it are largely dictated by Earth’s orbit.

As the planets follow their orbits there are times when they are very close together and other times when they are further apart.

When Venus reaches ‘superior conjunction’, it is on the opposite side of the sun from us. The greatest distance this can be is when Earth is at the extreme end of its orbital ellipse, which is shown as the longest distance in the picture above.

Likewise, they are closest together at the point of ‘inferior conjunction’, which happens every 584 days. This is the moment when Earth, Venus, and the sun are all in a line with Venus and Earth on the same side of the sun.

Is Venus in the night sky tonight? Click the link to find out.

The closest Venus can be to Earth is when inferior conjunction happens on the least curved part of Earth’s orbit. This is when Earth is near perihelion, its closest approach to the sun and it’s shown as the shortest distance on the diagram.

The two planets’ orbits are mathematically entwined and repeat almost exactly every five conjunctions, which takes eight years. This means that the distance between Earth and Venus at any given conjunction will be approximately the same in five conjunctions’ time.

Armed with this knowledge, we understand there is no single answer to the question ‘how far away is Venus?’.

Instead, let’s look at the closest, average, and furthest distances that we find Venus to our planet.

Venus’ Closest Approach to Earth

Venus is closest to Earth at its inferior conjunction. The smallest distance this can be today is just under 24.8 million miles (40 million km). Their orbits rarely make this happen, but there was such a close approach in January 2022.

Distances for the next few inferior conjunctions are given below:

• August 12, 2023 – 26.8 million miles (43.2 million km)
• March 23, 2025 – 26.1 million miles (42.0 million km)
• October 24, 2026 – 25.3 million miles (40.8 million km)

The change in Earth’s orbit over time has meant that the minimum distance between our two planets has increased. Venus has not been closer to Earth than 24.5 million miles (39.5 m km) since 1623 .

After the year 5683, Venus won’t come within 24.8 million miles (40 m km) of Earth for more than 60,000 years.

Venus’ Furthest Distance from Earth

Venus is furthest from Earth at superior conjunctions. The maximum distance this can be is about 161.6 million miles ( 260 million km) . In June 2024, Venus will be almost as far away from us as it’s possible to be.

• June 04, 2024 – 161.3 million miles (259.6 million km)
• Jan 06, 2026 – 159.1 million miles (256.0 million km)
• August 11, 2027 – 160.9 million miles (259.0 million km)

These maximum distances happen when Earth is at or near aphelion, which is its furthest distance from the sun.

The Average Distance of Venus

The extreme closest and furthest approaches of Venus only happen every 19 months or so. In between time, the average distance of Venus from Earth is about 42.2 million miles or 68 million km .

This is not the complete story, because the distance to Venus changes every day and varies massively throughout an orbit, but it’s a useful approximation.

Is Venus Closer Than Mars?

We often talk about Venus and Mars being our sister planet, but only one of them can be closest to Earth.

Mars is, on average, substantially further away from us than Venus.  At an average distance of 117 million miles (188 million km), the red planet is about three times further away from us than Venus.

Discover how to see Venus with your telescope .

In July 2018, Mars came within 36 million miles (57.6 million km) of our planet, and won’t get that close again until September 2035 . So, even at its closest, Mars is still 10 million miles further away than Venus is at its nearest approach.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth (it’s also the most similar in size ).

How Long Does it Take to Get to Venus?

Now we know the distance to this rocky world Venus , we can finish this article by working out how long it would take to get there.

In the first instance, we’ll take the pure approach and measure the time it takes light to travel from Venus to Earth.

Next, we’ll enter the real world, where we can’t travel anywhere close to light speed, and see how long it takes a spaceship to journey to the nearest planet in the solar system.

How Long Light Takes to Travel from Venus to Earth

Light travels at the fastest speed possible, which is over 186,000 miles per second (almost 300,000 km/s).

Let’s see what this means for the time taken to cover the shortest, average, and longest gaps between Earth and Venus:

• Shortest = 24.8m miles (40m km) = 133 seconds (2 mins 13 secs)
• Average = 42.2m miles (68m km) = 227 seconds (3 mins 46 secs)
• Furthest = 161.6 m miles (260m km) = 869 seconds (14 mins 29 secs)

At its average distance of 42.2 million miles, light takes 3 minutes 46 seconds to reach Earth from Venus. As the planets orbit the sun that time varies between 2 minutes 13 seconds and 14 minutes 29 seconds.

When you look up at Venus with your telescope , you’re seeing the planet as it was at least two minutes and 13 seconds ago and perhaps as long as a quarter of an hour ago!

Of course, light travel is fantasy, so let’s wrap up by looking at how long it takes spaceships to get there.

How Long Does it Take a Spaceship to Travel to Venus?

Traveling to Venus in a spaceship is not a simple affair. 

It is not possible to just figure out where Venus is, point a spaceship at it, and press the big launch button.

Instead, we have to account for the motion of the planets as they constantly move around the sun. We also have to escape our gravitational pull at the start of our journey and enter Venus’s at the end. 

All of this is like a ballet of physics, often the best route to achieve our goal is not the most direct, which adds to the time it takes to travel there.

The best thing we can do is measure actual journey times from past successful missions to our nearest planet. The following is just a selection, click here for a complete list.

The shortest time a spacecraft has taken to get to Venus from Earth is 109 days, or 3.5 months. The longest journey took 198 days or 6.5 months. Most journeys take between 120 and 130 days which is about 4 months.

Now you know everything you need to about the distance of Venus and how long it takes to travel there, which will add to your enjoyment next time you’re viewing its crescent through your telescope.

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How Long Would It Take To Get To Venus?

It would take on average about 109 or more days to get to Venus, depending on the type of spacecraft you were traveling in and when you took flight.

There are many factors that can affect how long it takes to get to Venus. The planets Earth and Venus follow their own orbits, so depending on how long ago you left for Venus, it could have been farther away than when you left ten months earlier or later. Additionally, the type of spacecraft you are traveling in can make a big difference in how long it takes to get there.

How Far Is Venus From Earth?

The distance to Venus from Earth is an average of 42.2 million miles; the furthest possible distance is 161.6 million miles, while the shortest is 24.8 million miles. The distance differs depending on where Venus and Earth are currently orbiting.

How Fast Can We Arrive on Venus?

Using the fastest spacecraft, the Juno spacecraft, and the shortest possible distance, you can arrive at Venus in about 6 days. However, if you are using an average spacecraft which goes around 16,150 miles an hour, you would reach Venus in around 40 days. However, these are only approximations using the shortest distance.

The fastest recorded journey to reach Venus is the Mariner 2’s in 1962, which arrived at the planet in 109 days. While the longest recorded journey was 198 days, by the Pioneer Venus 1,

When Is the Best Time to Travel to Venus?

The best time to travel to Venus is during inferior conjunction. Inferior conjunction happens when Venus is closest to Earth and the two planets’ orbits are on the same side of the sun. This occurs about every 580–590 days, so you would need to plan ahead if you wanted to travel to Venus using inferior conjunction.

When Is the Worst Time to Travel to Venus?

Venus is best avoided during the superior conjunction. Superior conjunction is when Venus is on the other side of the sun from Earth. So if you left during this time, it would take a lot longer to get to Venus than if you had waited until the inferior conjunction, and you would pass through the sun’s vicinity to get there.

It is most efficient to travel to Venus during inferior conjunction, as there is the shortest distance between the two planets. However, there are many factors that will affect how long your journey to Venus takes, including the type of spacecraft you are traveling in, the distance between Earth and Venus, and when you leave.

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Venus Facts

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, and our closest planetary neighbor. It's the hottest planet in our solar system, and is sometimes called Earth's twin.

Introduction

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, and Earth's closest planetary neighbor. Venus is the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction from most planets.

Venus is similar in structure and size to Earth, and is sometimes called Earth's evil twin. Its thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar system with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Below the dense, persistent clouds, the surface has volcanoes and deformed mountains.

The ancient Romans could easily see seven bright objects in the sky: the Sun, the Moon, and the five brightest planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They named the objects after their most important gods.

Venus is named for the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty, who was known as Aphrodite to the ancient Greeks. Most features on Venus are named for women. It’s the only planet named after a female god.

Potential for Life

Thirty miles up (about 50 kilometers) from the surface of Venus temperatures range from 86 to 158 Fahrenheit (30 to 70 Celsius). This temperature range could accommodate Earthly life, such as “extremophile” microbes. And atmospheric pressure at that height is similar to what we find on Earth’s surface.

At the tops of Venus’ clouds, whipped around the planet by winds measured as high as 224 mph (360 kph), we find another transformation. Persistent, dark streaks appear. Scientists are so far unable to explain why these streaks remain stubbornly intact, even amid hurricane-force winds. They also have the odd habit of absorbing ultraviolet radiation.

The most likely explanations focus on fine particles, ice crystals, or even a chemical compound called iron chloride. Although it's much less likely, another possibility considered by scientists who study astrobiology is that these streaks could be made up of microbial life, Venus-style. Astrobiologists note that ring-shaped linkages of sulfur atoms, known to exist in Venus’ atmosphere, could provide microbes with a kind of coating that would protect them from sulfuric acid. These handy chemical cloaks would also absorb potentially damaging ultraviolet light and re-radiate it as visible light.

Some of the Russian Venera probes did, indeed, detect particles in Venus’ lower atmosphere about a micron in length – roughly the same size as a bacterium on Earth.

None of these findings provide compelling evidence for the existence of life in Venus’ clouds. But the questions they raise, along with Venus’ vanished ocean, its violently volcanic surface, and its hellish history, make a compelling case for missions to investigate our temperamental sister planet. There is much, it would seem, that she can teach us.

Size and Distance

Venus orbits the Sun from an average distance of 67 million miles (108 million kilometers), or 0.72 astronomical units. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight about six minutes to travel from the Sun to Venus.

Earth's nearness to Venus is a matter of perspective. The planet is nearly as big around as Earth. Its diameter at its equator is about 7,521 miles (12,104 kilometers), versus 7,926 miles (12,756 kilometers) for Earth. From Earth, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after our own Moon. The ancients, therefore, gave it great importance in their cultures, even thinking it was two objects: a morning star and an evening star. That’s where the trick of perspective comes in.

Because Venus’ orbit is closer to the Sun than ours, the two of them – from our viewpoint – never stray far from each other. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks saw Venus in two guises: first in one orbital position (seen in the morning), then another (your “evening” Venus), just at different times of the year.

At its nearest to Earth , Venus is about 24 million (about 38 million kilometers) distant. But most of the time the two planets are farther apart; Mercury, the innermost planet, actually spends more time in Earth’s proximity than Venus.

One more trick of perspective: how Venus looks through binoculars or a telescope. Keep watch over many months, and you’ll notice that Venus has phases, just like our Moon – full, half, quarter, etc. The complete cycle, however, new to full, takes 584 days, while our Moon takes just a month. And it was this perspective, the phases of Venus first observed by Galileo through his telescope, that provided the key scientific proof for the Copernican heliocentric nature of the solar system.

Orbit and Rotation

Spending a day on Venus would be quite a disorienting experience – that is, if your spacecraft or spacesuit could protect you from temperatures in the range of 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 Celsius). For one thing, your “day” would be 243 Earth days long – longer even than a Venus year (one trip around the Sun), which takes only 225 Earth days. For another, because of the planet's extremely slow rotation, sunrise to sunset would take 117 Earth days. And by the way, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east, because Venus spins backward compared to Earth.

While you’re waiting, don’t expect any seasonal relief from the unrelenting temperatures. On Earth, with its spin axis tilted by about 23 degrees, we experience summer when our part of the planet (our hemisphere) receives the Sun’s rays more directly – a result of that tilt. In winter, the tilt means the rays are less direct. No such luck on Venus: Its very slight tilt is only three degrees, which is too little to produce noticeable seasons.

Venus is one of only two planets in our solar system that doesn't have a moon, but it does have a quasi-satellite that has officially been named Zoozve . This object was discovered on Nov. 11, 2002, by Brian Skiff at the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS) in Flagstaff, Arizona, a project funded by NASA that ended in February 2008.  

Quasi-satellites, sometimes called quasi-moons, are asteroids that orbit the Sun while staying close to a planet. A quasi-satellite’s orbit usually is more oblong and less stable than the planet's orbit. In time, the shape of a quasi-satellite’s orbit may change and it may move away from the planet. 

According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the organization that names space objects, Zoozve is the first-identified quasi-satellite of a major planet. Earth also has quasi-satellites, including a small asteroid discovered in 2016 . 

Based on its brightness, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) estimate Zoozve ranges in size from 660 feet (200 meters) to 1,640 feet (500 meters) across. 

Interestingly, Zoozve also orbits relatively close to Earth but does not pose a threat to our planet. For the next 175 years, the closest Zoozve will get to Earth is in the year 2149 when it will be about 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) away, or about 9 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.  

How Zoozve Got Its Name  

After the discovery in 2002, Skiff reported his finding to the Minor Planet Center , which is funded by a Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program grant from NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office . At that time, it was given the provisional name 2002 VE68. Skiff said he didn’t realize the asteroid’s importance and forgot about the object until a radio show host reached out to him in 2023 about naming it Zoozve. 

Soon after Skiff’s discovery, a team of astronomers, including Seppo Mikkola with the University of Turku in Finland and Paul Wiegert with the University of Western Ontario in London, determined that the object was the first of its kind to be discovered. They think that Zoozve may have been a companion to Venus for at least 7,000 years, and that Earth’s gravity helped push Zoozve into its present orbit. 

The name Zoozve comes from a child's poster of the solar system. The artist, Alex Foster, saw “2002 VE68” on a list of solar system objects, wrote down “2002 VE,” and then misread his own handwriting as “Zoozve.”  

Latif Nasser, co-host of the WNYC Studios show Radiolab, tracked down the source of the mistake with the help of Liz Landau , a NASA senior communications specialist. Nasser suggested that Skiff request that the IAU officially name the asteroid Zoozve. Skiff agreed, and the name Zoozve was approved in February 2024. 

Venus has no rings.

A critical question for scientists who search for life among the stars: How do habitable planets get their start? The close similarities of early Venus and Earth, and their very different fates, provide a kind of test case for scientists who study planet formation. Similar size, similar interior structure, both harboring oceans in their younger days. Yet one is now an inferno, while the other is the only known world to host abundant life. The factors that set these planets on almost opposite paths began, most likely, in the swirling disk of gas and dust from which they were born. Somehow, 4.6 billion years ago that disk around our Sun accreted, cooled, and settled into the planets we know today. Better knowledge of the formation history of Venus could help us better understand Earth – and rocky planets around other stars.

If we could slice Venus and Earth in half, pole to pole, and place them side by side, they would look remarkably similar. Each planet has an iron core enveloped by a hot-rock mantle; the thinnest of skins forms a rocky, exterior crust. On both planets, this thin skin changes form and sometimes erupts into volcanoes in response to the ebb and flow of heat and pressure deep beneath.

On Earth, the slow movement of continents over thousands and millions of years reshapes the surface, a process known as “plate tectonics.” Something similar might have happened on Venus early in its history. Today a key element of this process could be operating: subduction, or the sliding of one continental “plate” beneath another, which can also trigger volcanoes. Subduction is believed to be the first step in creating plate tectonics.

NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, which ended a five-year mission to Venus in 1994, mapped the broiling surface using radar. Magellan saw a land of extreme volcanism – a relatively young surface, one recently reshaped (in geologic terms), and chains of towering mountains.

Ongoing Venus Volcanic Activity Discovered With NASA’s Magellan Data

An analysis of data from Magellan’s radar finds two volcanoes erupted in the early 1990s. This adds to the 2023…

The Soviet Union sent a series of probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of its Venera program (Venera is Russian for Venus). Ten probes made it to the surface, and a few functioned briefly after landing. The longest survivor lasted two hours; the shortest, 23 minutes. Photos snapped before the landers fried show a barren, dim, and rocky landscape, and a sky that is likely some shade of sulfur yellow.

Volcanoes and tectonic forces appear to have erased most traces of the early surface of Venus. Newer computer models indicate the resurfacing may have happened piecemeal over an extended period of time. The average age of surface features could be as young as 150 million years, with some older surfaces mixed in.

Venus has valleys and high mountains dotted with thousands of volcanoes. Its surface features – most named for both real and mythical women – include Ishtar Terra, a rocky, highland area around the size of Australia near the north pole, and an even larger, South-America-sized region called Aphrodite Terra that stretches across the equator. One mountain reaches 36,000 feet (11 kilometers), higher than Mt. Everest. Notably, except for Earth, Venus has by far the fewest impact craters of any rocky planet.

Other notable features of the Venus landscape include:

• A volcanic crater named Sacajawea for Lewis and Clark’s Native American guide.
• A deep canyon called Diana for the Roman goddess of the hunt.
• “Pancake” domes with flat tops and steep sides, as wide as 38 miles (62 kilometers), likely formed by the extrusion of highly viscous lava.
• “Tick” domes, odd volcanoes with radiating spurs that, from above, make them look like their blood-feeding namesake.
• Tesserae, terrain with intricate patterns of ridges and grooves that suggest the scorching temperatures make rock behave in some ways more like peanut butter beneath a thin and strong chocolate layer on Venus.

Venus’ atmosphere is one of extremes. With the hottest surface in the solar system, apart from the Sun itself, Venus is hotter even than the innermost planet, charbroiled Mercury. The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide – the same gas driving the greenhouse effect on Venus and Earth – with clouds composed of sulfuric acid. And at the surface, the hot, high-pressure carbon dioxide behaves in a corrosive fashion. But higher up in the atmosphere, temperatures and pressure begin to ease.

Magnetosphere

Even though Venus is similar in size to Earth and has a similar-sized iron core, the planet does not have its own internally generated magnetic field. Instead, Venus has what is known as an induced magnetic field. This weak magnetic field is created by the interaction of the Sun's magnetic field and the planet's outer atmosphere. Ultraviolet light from the Sun excites gases in Venus' outermost atmosphere; these electrically excited gases are called ions, and thus this region is called the ionosphere (Earth has an ionosphere as well). The solar wind – a million-mile-per-hour gale of electrically charged particles streaming continuously from the Sun – carries with it the Sun's magnetic field. When the Sun's magnetic field interacts with the electrically excited ionosphere of Venus, it creates or induces, a magnetic field there. This induced magnetic field envelops the planet and is shaped like an extended teardrop, or the tail of a comet, as the solar wind blows past Venus and outward into the solar system.

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Kuiper Belt

How Long Does It Take To Get To Venus?

Venus is full of scientific wonders, from being the hottest planet in our solar system to having 92 times the surface pressure than we have here on Earth. Mankind has carried out many unmanned missions to Venus, but we have yet set foot on its surface. There are many variables to consider when considering a feat like this. But how long does it typically take to get there? Let’s find out!

So, how long does it take to get to Venus?  It typically takes around three months to reach Venus from Earth. Although, the total length of time it takes depends on the location of Venus in relation to Earth – which does vary quite considerably depending on the planet’s elliptical orbit position. 

The first spacecraft sent on a mission to Venus was the Venera 1 spacecraft from the Soviets on Feb. 12th, 1961. 

What a feat!

Scientists were able to estimate that on May 19th, the spacecraft passed Venus within 62,137 miles.

It only took a little over three months for this mission, but that isn’t the case for each subsequent launch.

And with technological advancement, we would hope it would take a lot less time than this!

Let us now explore the exploration of Venus a little further. It’s truly fascinating! 

Table of Contents

How Far Away Is Venus?

When Venus is at its farthest distance, it is roughly 162 million miles from Earth. Depending on its location to our planet, this distance changes from time to time. 

Venus makes its closest approach to Earth roughly once every 584 days, and this could be as close as 24 million miles. 

Venus’s current distance from Earth is 137.8 million miles away at the time of this writing. 

Additionally, Venus is the second brightest object in our night sky due to its general proximity to Earth. 

In more detail, each distance is dependent on the planet’s elliptical orbit position. 

When looking at Venus from Earth, how visible it is in the night sky can be a decent indicator of the planet’s location in its elliptical orbit. 

The more visible, the closer it is and vice versa. Considering a luminosity magnitude of -4.9 at its brightest and being 24 million miles away at its closest, it makes sense why the planet would be visible to the naked eye. 

Additionally, Venus will pass the sun every so often. 

The term for this event is called transit. 

The distance between Earth and Venus isn’t the reason we’ve only sent unmanned spacecraft. 

Not only does Venus have immense amounts of pressure on the surface, but it’s also scorching. 

Even with the advancements in technology, we’re left asking ourselves…

Can Humans Go To Venus?

Although we have yet set foot on the Venusian surface due to its extreme conditions, scientists and engineers are getting closer to figuring it out.  

We know that the surface temperature on Venus can reach roughly 900 degrees Fahrenheit and an atmospheric pressure that’s over 90 times that of Earth. 

Not to mention the thousands of volcanoes. 

Humans obviously wouldn’t survive these conditions with our current methods and technology. 

Back in the 1970s, Soviet scientists made the suggestion of possibly settling in the Venusian atmosphere. 

Even though surface conditions may be unbearable, Venus’s cloud-level atmospheric conditions are perfect. 

Venus has the most Earth-like environment in our solar system, which is why scientists have been trying to get us there for decades. 

One suggestion from Geoffrey Landis (Glenn Research Center) was to use floating cities or aerostat habitats at a specific altitude in the Venusian atmosphere. 

He estimated that roughly 31 miles into the air would be the optimal resting altitude for such a challenge.

Not only would this take an immense amount of equipment, but it also isn’t the most practical or safe option. 

Additionally, the high levels of sulfuric acid would corrode building materials and require exceptional engineering to sustain the atmospheric conditions. 

There has recently been a suggestion from a team of students at Northeastern University. 

They proposed that a group of astronauts travel near the planet while they release drones down to the surface and collect as much data as possible manually before the harsh environments render the equipment useless. 

This could be a way for us to collect crucial data more efficiently and accurately.

Have Humans Got To Venus?

Humans have yet to visit Venus due to extreme conditions, but we have sent over 30+ unmanned spacecraft to collect data. With the surface temperatures of Venus being so daunting and the immense pressure and sulfuric acid in the atmosphere, it essentially makes it seem impossible. 

Some may think humanity should already have the technology to handle this right now. 

It’s not so much that we can’t do it at all; it’s the management of safety, resources, and ensuring we have all the information we need before even making an attempt.

At the moment, it seems like the most realistic approach will be observing Venus from a distance.

As I previously mentioned, there have been talks of residing in a sweet spot of the Venusian atmosphere but, it’s not an intelligent move regarding safety or logistics. 

To simply survive on the surface of Venus would require equipment to withstand extreme heat and corrosion from the sulfuric acid in the atmosphere, not to mention the pressure on the human body. 

You can expect humanity to make many unmanned missions to the planet. Even then, only so much data and information can be recovered from machines. 

At some point and time, we’ll reach a point where our next step is setting foot on the planet.

There are a few primary characteristics Venus has that intrigues scientists around the world. 

The fact that there’s a layer in the atmosphere we can survive, and the rock surface of the planet is much like Earth. 

You can’t help but wonder if someday, humans will be able to walk the surface.

Until we figure out how to survive the extreme elements of the planet, we will only be sending machines to the surface. 

Although that’s already been done and we continue to do so, our best machines still only last for a certain amount of time. 

Eventually, the heat will destroy the equipment.

How Do You Get To Venus?

This is dependent on a few factors, not only the speed of the rocket but also its path. You can’t just fly directly at Venus and expect to end up in its orbit. You have to base it off of the interplanetary trajectory, so the spacecraft arrives in the exact location as Venus at the same time. 

On top of that, there’s only a specific window that we can launch towards Venus and successfully arrive. 

These opportunities occur roughly every 19 months. Another important consideration is the spacecraft’s fuel supply, and there are a few tricks astronauts use to conserve fuel. 

One of the most common is a method called “gravity-assist” trajectories. 

This is when the spacecraft uses a nearby planet’s gravity as angular momentum to pick up speed and, in turn, conserves fuel for the voyage.

We pointed this out previously in the article, but the astronauts’ living conditions will also need to be in order for the voyage. 

Three months to Venus and three months back may not sound like forever, but having enough food and water is paramount. 

It’s safe to assume that the next time astronauts get sent to Venus, this will be an attempt at entering the atmosphere to manageable conditions at roughly cloud-level. 

This would also mean that the expedition would have plenty of new technology, supplies, and materials needed to get the job done. 

Even at the manageable altitude, it can still be over 160 degrees, so there’s zero room for error. 

Could Humans Live on Venus?

Currently no, humans cannot live on the Venusian surface as the climate is too hostile. This doesn’t mean scientists aren’t getting close to figuring it out, though. Some have even said Venus would be a better choice for colonization than Mars due to its similar landscape and potential Earth-like history.  

Most unmanned missions to the surface lasted an hour or two tops due to the harsh elements destroying the equipment in a short amount of time. 

Currently, NASA has a High Operating Temperature Technology (HOTTech) program, which aims to create technology that can withstand the surface of Venus. 

Primarily, making sure this technology can withstand temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

Additionally, NASA has a project called “HEEET,” which stands for Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology. 

It’s built with a high density all carbon layer for the entry interface and an insulating layer to protect the spacecraft’s internal components. 

Right now, this technology has a readiness rating of TLR 6. 

When it reaches a rating of TLR 8, it will be ready for ground tests and space travel. 

NASA scientists are also proposing a platform technology that could be placed in the cloud-level atmosphere before 2032, while a team at the Glenn Research Center is working on a few projects, including a silicon-carbide semiconductor that could potentially withstand the Venusian surface for up to 4,000 hours. 

Which is much better than the 1-2 hour surface time of previous unmanned missions. 

Even though surviving on the surface seems like a daunting task, the pursuit shouldn’t be written off. 

Scientists believe that Venus had its own oceans that lasted for at least 2 billion years or longer. 

Although the planet’s clouds are sulfuric acid, scientists have found some microbes on Earth can handle extreme conditions like the sulfuric acid clouds.

In conclusion, yes, Venus is a planet with a harsh climate, but with the right technology coming down the pipeline, humanity will find a way to tolerate its hot and acidic atmosphere someday. 

Hey, my name is Jeremy. I’m a passionate and seasoned astronomer who loves nothing more than observing the night sky. I also love researching, learning, and writing all things Space and the Universe. I created Astronomy Scope to share my knowledge, experience, suggestions, and recommendations of what I have learned along the way while helping anyone to get into and maximize their enjoyment of the hobby.

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Venus: Size, distance from the Sun, orbit

Size: Venus is about 7,521 miles (12,104 kilometers) in diameter. Distance from the Sun: The second planet from our star has an average distance from the Sun of 67 million miles (108 million km). Orbit around the Sun: It takes 225 Earth days for Venus to go around the Sun one time. Rotation: Venus spins on its axis once every 243 Earth days, but it spins in the opposite direction of Earth. On Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Surface: The surface of Venus is covered with craters, mountains, volcanoes, and lava plains. Maxwell Montes is the highest point on Venus. It is more than 7 miles (11 km) high. Atmosphere: Possessing sulfuric acid clouds, the atmosphere of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide (96 percent), nitrogen (3.5 percent), and carbon monoxide, argon, sulfur dioxide, and water vapor (all less than 1 percent). The atmosphere is so thick and heavy that it bends light, making the ground appear to curve upward in all directions. The planet’s atmosphere is ninety times heavier than Earth’s.

Temperature: Venus’s surface temperature can get close to 900° F (482° C), hot enough to melt lead. This makes Venus the hottest place in the solar system after the Sun. Escape velocity: To escape Venus’s gravity, you have to travel 23,300 miles (37,500 km) per hour, compared to 25,000 miles (40,200 km) per hour necessary to escape Earth’s gravity. Other information: After the Sun and Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the sky. Because its thick clouds reflect most of the light Venus gets from the Sun, the planet looks like a very bright star in the morning (just before sunrise) or evening (just after sunset) sky. Sometimes called Earth’s sister planet, Venus is slightly smaller than Earth. It’s also our closest neighbor, approaching within 25 million miles (40 million km). In Roman mythology, Venus was identified with the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite. To the ancient Mayans, Venus was the patron planet of warfare called Kukulcan, or the feathered serpent.

You can get more facts on the planets in our solar system in each of the articles linked to below:

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How Far Away Is Venus? How Long Would it Take to Travel There?

Last Updated on Jan 23 2023

With stargazing in full swing and growing more popular by the day, few objects are more enticing to spot with the naked eye than Venus. While it’s typically only visible a few hours at dusk and dawn, it’s the brightest object that you can spot in the sky beside the Sun or Moon!

But how far away is Venus, our closest planetary neighbor, and how much closer to the Sun is it than Earth? How long would it take for us to travel there? We answer all those questions and more here.

• How Far Away Is Venus From Earth?

Trying to determine the distance between two moving objects is never an easy affair, but when you must account for the fact that each object is moving in an elliptical motion, the math becomes even more complex.

That’s why the distance between the Earth and Venus can vary so wildly. Venus is “only” 24 million miles away at its closest distance, but when it’s at its farthest point, it’s a whopping 162 million miles away!

We refer to the closest distance between the planets as the inferior conjunction, which happens every 584 days, but even then, the distance changes slightly from year to year on an 8-year pattern. That means the closest distance of 24 million miles only happens once every 8 years!

On average, during inferior conjunction, the closest distance is 25 million miles. Interestingly enough, if you’re looking to get a good view of Venus , you don’t want to do it during inferior conjunction.

Instead, you want to wait until the greatest elongation. Simply put, this is when Venus is at the sharpest angle from Earth relative to the Sun. This makes sense because otherwise, all you see when you’re looking at Venus is the Sun!

But while this is when it’s best to view Venus, it’s only because it gives you the most possible viewing time, not necessarily a better view. Since Venus has such a thick atmosphere, it’s highly reflective. So, no matter when you’re looking at it, you’ll only see a reflective dot.

However, if you observe Venus throughout the year, you’ll notice that it goes through phases, much like the Moon. Light illuminates the planet’s surface facing the Sun, but we only see a fraction of the illuminated surface because we’re viewing it from an angle.

With a bit of magnification, you’ll notice a crescent, half, gibbous, and full Venus! But if you’re looking at Venus at the inferior conjunction, all you’ll see is a black dot on the Sun. While that can make for cool transit views if you’re using a solar filter, you’re not going to make out any additional details.

• How Far Away Is Venus From the Sun?

All the planets circle the Sun in an ellipse, so just like there’s no set distance between Venus and Earth, there’s no set distance between Venus and the Sun!

While Venus has the least elliptical orbit of any of the planets, the distance still changes by about 1 million miles! The closest that the planet travels to the Sun is 66.7 million miles, while the furthest is 67.7 million miles.

However, the average distance is 67 million miles. For comparison, the average distance that the Earth resides from the Sun is 93 million miles.

While this undoubtedly has a huge impact on the planet’s surface temperature, it’s a common misconception that Venus is so hot simply because it is closer to the Sun. In fact, it has more to do with its thick atmosphere that traps greenhouse gases and superheats the planet!

These greenhouse gases take the surface temperature of Venus to over 880 degrees Fahrenheit! That’s about 100 degrees warmer than Mercury, even though it’s almost twice as far from the Sun as the smaller planet!

• How Long Does It Take to Travel to Venus?

There are few things more exciting than space travel. Unfortunately, there are few things less complicated. Not only do we need to account for the location of the planet that we’re traveling to in relation to the time that it takes to get there, but we also need to consider the technology that we’re using to get there.

It’s not a straightforward process. The fastest time ever recorded to get to Venus was with the Mariner 2 mission. It took 109 days, but it was also the first mission to Venus. The latest mission, the Venus Express, took 153 days, despite it launching 43 years later!

A large reason for the difference is the fact that the Mariner 2 mission was simply a flyby while Venus Express was an orbiter. That’s an important distinction because while we love to mention the top speed that we can use to get to a planet, we often forget about the brakes.

As we get closer to the Sun, the brakes need to become even more powerful to offset its gravity. Moreover, it’s more challenging to travel straight to Venus at inferior conjunction. While that’s when we’re at the closest distance, that also means risking sending the probe straight toward the Sun.

This increases the top speed of the spaceship, which further reduces the amount of time that we need to get there, but it makes it near impossible to stop.

So, how long does it take to Venus? Anywhere from 3.5 to 6 months, but we could do it in even less time if we simply wanted to zoom past the planet as fast as possible!

• What Is the Distance to Venus in Light Minutes?

There are many miles between Venus and us, and sometimes it’s just easier to break down things in a smaller unit of measurement, like lightyears. But for objects as close as planets, we have two options.

We can either opt for Astronomical Units (AUs), which refers to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun or go with light minutes and light seconds. Since the latter is never changing, that’s what we’re choosing here.

On average, Venus is roughly 6 light minutes from the Sun. While this number doesn’t change much, the amount of time that it takes light to reach us from Venus varies a bit more. It can take light from Venus anywhere from 2 minutes and 9 seconds to 14 minutes and 30 seconds to reach us, depending on our current distance from the planet!

Here’s a final interesting note: Since we see the light from Venus after it’s reflected, when we’re viewing Venus at its farthest point, the light that we’re viewing is actually about 20 minutes and 30 seconds old!

It took 6 minutes to reach the planet, where it was instantly reflected before taking another 14 minutes and 30 seconds to reach Earth!

Whether you’re new to astronomy and stargazing or an avid follower, there’s nothing like getting more context on what you’re observing. While we might not have been able to give you the straightforward answer to how far away is Venus that you were hoping for, we find that the intricacies of the truth are far more compelling!

So, keep asking questions and keep looking up . We’ll be here to answer any questions that you might have along the way!

Related Reading:

• How Far Away is Mars? How Long Would it Take to Travel There?
• How Far Away Is Jupiter? How Long Would it Take to Travel There?
• How Far Is Uranus From the Sun?

Featured Image Credit: Vadim Sadovski, Shutterstock

Table of Contents

About the Author Robert Sparks

Robert’s obsession with all things optical started early in life, when his optician father would bring home prototypes for Robert to play with. Nowadays, Robert is dedicated to helping others find the right optics for their needs. His hobbies include astronomy, astrophysics, and model building. Originally from Newark, NJ, he resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the nighttime skies are filled with glittering stars.

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How Long Does It Take To Get To Venus?

Table of contents, what is venus like.

Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun. It is also known as “Earth’s twin” because it is relatively similar. Even though Venus is a bit smaller than Earth, the atmosphere there is complete with clouds too, and has a similar structure to our planet.

However, despite its similarities, unlike Earth, Venus is uninhabitable for humans. Venus is an extremely hot planet, even hotter than an oven or a bonfire. The surface temperatures on Venus is 470 o C (880 o F) which is hot enough to melt lead or cook a pizza in seconds. And it has an atmospheric pressure that is 90 times greater than on Earth. This would be like us walking around half a mile underwater. Venus also has very strong winds, reaching 450 mph. By comparison on Earth, the strongest tornado winds are around 300 mph.

Its clouds are comprised of toxic sulphuric acid, and it has a high concentration of carbon dioxide. Because Venus is so hot and is one of the closest planets to us, it can often be seen in the night sky. Its layer of clouds reflects more light than other planets so, with the exception of the Sun and the Moon, the brightest thing in the sky is often Venus.

Venus is the slowest rotating planet. A single rotation, or day, on Venus takes the equivalent of 243 days on Earth. Interestingly, however, a year on Venus is shorter than its day. It takes Venus just 224 Earth days to complete its orbit of the Sun.

How far away is Venus from Earth?

Because Earth and Venus follow elliptical orbits  of the Sun, their distance from each other changes regularly. At their farthest apart, they are about 162 million miles away from each other. But every 584 days, they move closer together and are approximately 24 million miles apart. Venus is also 67 million miles away from the Sun.

How long would it take to travel to Venus?

If we were to take a trip to Venus, it would take us roughly four months to travel from Earth to Venus.

In the 1960s, NASA and the Soviet Union both sent spacecraft to Venus to analyze and study the planet. None of them landed on the surface of Venus, but instead recorded data as they flew by. They managed to measure the temperature, atmospheric gases, and density.

It wasn’t until 1970 that the first spacecraft landed on Venus. This was the Soviet Union’s Venera 7 and, despite a difficult landing, it managed to take measurements and transmit a signal for 23 minutes before it was destroyed the inhospitable environment.

Since then, there have been over 40 missions to Venus. Some have landed and some have just flown by. Each mission has provided valuable information about one of our closest planetary neighbors.

Could Venus support life?

Scientists believe that microbial life might be found in Venus’ clouds. These clouds are still hot, but bearable at 60 o C (140 o F), and have an atmospheric pressure similar to Earth.

It is thought that hundreds of millions of years ago Venus may have contained water and harbored life. It wasn’t until 700 million years ago that carbon dioxide took over the planet and led to a substantial greenhouse effect  which increased its temperature dramatically.

Check out this video summarizing Venus

Flesch Kincaid Grade Level: 6.9

Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease: 67.5

atmospheric pressure : the pressure created by the weight of the atmosphere.

elliptical orbits : oval-shaped pathways that planets follow when circling around the sun.

greenhouse effect : the trapping of heat from the sun on a planet’s surface.

CBBC (2011) https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/14143063 Accessed on April 6th 2023

Space.com (2012) How far away is Venus https://www.space.com/18529-distance-to-venus.html Accessed on April 6th 2023

Tornado Extreme https://www.tornadoxtreme.com/how-far-do-tornadoes-travel/ Accessed on April 6th 2023

NASA (2023) Venus Fact Sheet. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html Accessed on April 6th 2023

Space.com (2022) Planet Venus : 20 interesting facts about the scorching world. https://www.space.com/15988-venus-planet-weird-facts.html Accessed on April 7th 2023

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In many ways, Venus is the most Earth -like planet in the solar system .

A Brief Overview of Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun , and the closest to Earth ’s orbital path. It is a rocky planet, and its size, structure, and chemical composition is similar to that of Earth. For this reason, Venus is often called Earth’s twin.

Compare the sizes and order of the planets

At the same time, Venus is dramatically different from Earth. The planet is covered by thick clouds of sulfuric acid, and the average surface temperature is about 480 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit)—making it the hottest planet in the solar system .

Where Is Venus in the Sky?

Find and track Venus with our Interactive Night Sky Map

Check the weather in your town or city

When Is the Best Time to See Venus?

Venus usually is easy to spot: it’s the third brightest object in our sky after the Sun and the Moon . The planet lies closer to the Sun than the Earth, which means it always appears near the Sun, generally just before sunrise or just after sunset. As a result, the planet is affectionately known as the “morning star” or “evening star.”

The hidden patterns of Venus’s movement across the sky

Venus is visible as a morning star for around 263 days (about eight and a half months). Its farthest point from the Sun in the early-morning sky is called its greatest elongation west .

The planet then disappears behind the Sun for about 50 days before reappearing as an evening star for another roughly 263-day period. Its farthest distance from the Sun in the evening sky is referred to as greatest elongation east . Venus becomes invisible again for about eight days—this time passing in front of the Sun—before coming back into view as a morning star.

This entire cycle takes about 584 days (just over one year and seven months). The moment when Venus passes directly behind the Sun is termed superior conjunction ; the moment when the planet passes between Earth and the Sun is inferior conjunction .

Next greatest elongation east: January 10, 2025

Next inferior conjunction: March 23, 2025

Next greatest elongation west: June 1, 2025

Next superior conjunction: January 6, 2026

Previous superior conjunction: June 4, 2024

Previous greatest elongation west: October 23, 2023

Previous inferior conjunction: August 13, 2023

Previous greatest elongation east: June 4, 2023

How far is Venus from Earth right now?

Other Times to See Venus

On rare occasions, Venus aligns perfectly with the Sun and the Earth and can be observed as a black spot crossing—or transiting—the Sun’s disk. However, the next transit of Venus will not be until December 10/11, 2117 .

Venus can also be seen as a bright star close to the obscured Sun during a total solar eclipse .

When is the next total solar eclipse?

Venus can often be seen next to a Crescent Moon in the morning or (as above) evening sky.

©iStock.com/shaunl

How Long Is a Day and a Year?

Of all the planets in our solar system , Venus rotates the slowest: it takes around 243 Earth days to complete one spin (compared to Earth’s roughly 24 hours). Venus and Uranus are the only planets with retrograde rotation. This means the direction of their spin (clockwise, as seen from above the Sun’s north pole) is the opposite direction to their orbit around the Sun (counterclockwise).

A tropical year on Venus is approximately 225 Earth days. A Venusian solar day is about 117 Earth days.

How Many Moons Does Venus Have?

Venus and Mercury are the only planets in the solar system with no moons.

Spacecraft cannot survive for long on Venus’s hellish surface. This photo was taken by the Venera 13 lander during its 127 minutes of operating time on March 1, 1982.

Human Exploration of Venus

The earliest known recorded observations of Venus date back to around the 17th century BCE in Babylon. In 1610 Galileo observed the planet with a telescope and found it showed phases similar to the Moon’s.

The first successful spacecraft mission to Venus—or any other planet—was Mariner 2. It flew by the planet at a distance of about 34,800 kilometers (21,600 miles) on December 14, 1962. A few years later, the Venera 3 spacecraft crash-landed on Venus on March 1, 1966, becoming the first man-made object to strike the surface of another planet.

A decade later, on October 22, 1975, the Venera 9 lander survived for 53 minutes before succumbing to Venus’s high temperatures and pressures. While it was functioning, it sent back the first photographs from the surface of another planet.

How Long Does It Take to Get to Venus?

The best time to travel to Venus is when it is closest to the Earth, around the time of inferior conjunction. This launch window occurs approximately every one year and seven months. A typical journey time is around four or five months.

• Launched: August 27, 1962
• Arrived: December 14, 1962 (flyby)
• Journey time: 3 months and 17 days
• Launched: June 8, 1975
• Arrived: October 22, 1975 (landed)
• Journey time: 4 months and 14 days

Venus Express

• Launched: November 9, 2005
• Arrived: April 11, 2006 (entered orbit)
• Journey time: 5 months and 2 days

All dates are shown in UTC .

Topics: Astronomy , Planets

How Far Is Venus? And How Long To Travel There?

Also known as the morning and evening star , Venus is the closest planet to Earth and is the brightest object in the sky, other than the sun and moon.

And, if you’re wondering how far away is Venus  from Earth, read this article to know more.

Ready? Let’s get started…

How Far Is Venus: Short Summary

Venus is the 2nd planet from the sun and the closest to the Earth . So, how far away is Venus ?

Venus is at a distance of around 25 million miles (40 million kilometers)  from the Earth, but the  actual distance depends on the position of both Earth and Venus in their own orbits .

Why Does The Distance Between Venus And Earth Keep Changing?

All the planets, including Earth and Venus, travel in their own elliptical orbits around the sun and so the distance between the planets keeps varying.

Of all the planets, Venus’s orbit is the most circular  and how close or far we are from Venus depends largely on the Earth’s orbit.

The farthest distance between Venus and Earth is when Venus is on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth i.e. when it reaches the superior conjunction .

Venus is approximately at a distance of 162 million miles (261 million kilometers) from the Earth at the farthest.

Venus  and Earth are the closest at the inferior conjunction  point that occurs once in every 584 days when Venus, Earth and the sun are all in a straight line and the Earth and Venus are on the same side as the sun.

The inferior conjunction occurs on the Earth’s orbit, which is the least curved when the Earth is closest to the sun or at the perihelion. The orbits of both Earth and Venus are mathematically interconnected and they repeat every 5 conjunctions exactly in 8 years .

This essentially means that at any given conjunction, the distance between Venus and Earth will be almost the same in the time of the 5 conjunctions.

So, when the question is asked how far away is Venus from Earth, there is no single answer to this and the distance is usually referred to in terms of average, closest and farthest distances.

When Is Venus Closest to Earth?

Earth and Venus are closest to one another at their inferior conjunction and this shortest distance is around 24.8 million miles (40 million kilometers) .

The last inferior conjunction occurred on 8 January 2022, when Venus and Earth were at a distance of 24.7 million miles (39.8 million kilometers) from each other.

Some of the future inferior conjunctions that will occur include:

• 12 August 2023: 26.8 million miles (43.2 million kilometers)
• 23 March 2025: 26.1 million miles (42 million kilometers)

Over time, with the changes that have occurred in the Earth’s orbit, the minimum distance between Venus and Earth has increased, and since 1623, both the planets have not been closer than 24.5 million miles (39.2 million kilometers).

And, it is estimated that after 5683, Venus and Earth will not come within 24.8 million miles (40 million kilometers) for over 60,000 years.

When Is Venus Farthest From Earth?

Venus and Earth are the farthest from each other at the superior conjunction point . These maximum distances occur when the Earth is near or at the aphelion of the farthest distance from the sun.

The maximum distance between the two planets is around 161.6 million miles (260 million kilometers) .

Some of the future superior conjunctions that will occur include:

• 23 October 2023:  159.6 million miles (256.9 million kilometers)
• 4 June 2024:  161.3 million miles (259.6 million kilometers)
• 6 January 2026: 159.1 million miles (256 million kilometers)

What Is The Average Distance Between Earth And Venus?

The closest and farthest approaches to Venus occur approximately  once every 19 months . In the meantime, the average distance between Earth and Venus is around 42.2 million miles (68 million kilometers) .

But since the distance throughout the orbit varies a lot and the distance between both planets change on a daily basis, the average distance is only an approximation.

Is Venus Closer To Earth Than Mars?

Although both Venus as well as Mars, are considered Earth’s sister planets, just one of them can be closest to Earth.

Mars is at a distance of around 117 million miles (188 million kilometers) away from Earth and is considerably farther away from Earth compared to Venus. In fact, Mars is 3x further away from Earth than Venus .

The closest distance that Mars came to Earth was 36 million miles (57.6 million kilometers) in July 2018, and it will not come that close to Earth again until September 2035.

So, even at the closest distance to Earth, Mars is still around 10 million miles farther away compared to Venus at its closest approach to Earth.

How Long Does It Take To Travel To Venus?

If you want to know how long it will take for you to travel from Earth to Venus, it is first important to understand how long it takes for light to travel from Venus to Earth. And, then we will discuss how long it will take a spaceship to travel to Venus.

Time Taken For Light To Travel From Venus To Earth

Light travels extremely fast, at over 186,000 miles/second (300,000 kilometers/second).

So, when you consider the time that it takes for light to cover the average, shortest and longest distances between Venus and Earth, the times taken are as below:

• Average Distance:  42.2 million miles (68 million kilometers) = 227 seconds (3 minutes and 46 seconds)
• Shortest Distance:  24.8 million miles (40 million kilometers) = 133 seconds (2 minutes and 13 seconds)
• Farthest Distance:  161.6 million miles (260 million kilometers) = 869 seconds (14 minutes and 29 seconds)

So, at the average distance of around 42.2 million miles between Venus and Earth, the light from Venus takes around 3 minutes 46 seconds to reach Earth .

And, since the planets orbit around the sun, this time ranges between 2 minutes 13 seconds and 14 minutes 29 seconds.

Time Taken For A Spaceship To Travel From Earth To Venus

Traveling to Venus is not an easy task because the planets are constantly orbiting around the sun and so, this needs to be considered when traveling in a spaceship.

Further, the spaceship must escape the Earth’s gravitational pull and then enter the gravitational pull of Venus.

And so, when you consider the time taken for space travel from Earth to Venus, the route is not a direct straight line between planet A to planet B, where you start from Earth and land up on Venus.

The movement of the planets adds to the time it takes to travel. The best way to find out the time it will take from Earth to Venus is to measure the actual travel times from previous successful missions.

For instance, in 1962, Mariner 2 took 109 days to reach Venus from Earth. In 1975, the Venera 10 took 131 days and in 2005, the Venus Express took 153 days. You can see the complete list of space missions to Venus from Earth here .

In short, the least amount of time taken by a spacecraft from Earth to Venus was around 3.5 months (109 days), whereas the longest was around 6.5 months (198 days). Most of the space journeys from Earth to Venus take around 120-130 days i.e., around 4 months .

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Does Venus Appear To Be So Bright?

The main factor why Venus is the second brightest object  in the sky after the moon is because it is very close to the Earth. Also, Venus has a cloud cover, which is extremely reflective and bounces a lot of light in the direction of the Earth.

What Is The Color of Venus?

Venus appears to be light yellowish because it has an atmosphere of thick carbon dioxide and clouds of sulphuric acid.

Why Is Venus Uninhabitable For Humans?

Venus has an atmosphere that comprises carbon dioxide and clouds of sulphuric acid, which create a greenhouse effect and traps the heat near the surface, making the surface temperatures extremely hot, around 863°F (462°C), which makes Venus the hottest planet in the Solar System.

Also, Venus has an atmospheric pressure that is 90x that of Earth. Further, Venus is very dry because the extremely hot temperatures make it impossible for water to exist. All these conditions make Venus uninhabitable for humans.

In conclusion, when you consider how far Venus is from Earth, it is not possible to determine the exact distance between both planets because the distance between them depends on where both planets are in their orbits at any given point in time.

So, the distances are usually measured as the shortest, average and farthest distance between the two planets, where the average distance is 42.2 million miles (68 million kilometers), the shortest distance is 24.8 million miles (40 million kilometers) and the farthest distance is 162 million miles (261 million kilometers)  approximately between Venus and Earth.

And, now that you know how far Venus is from Earth, you can enjoy viewing the planet even more.

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How Long Does It Take To Go To Venus

Welcome to Learn to Astronomy ! In this article, we delve into the fascinating journey to Venus and answer the burning question: How long does it take to reach our neighboring planet ? Strap yourself in as we venture through space and time , uncovering the secrets of Venus’s elusive travel times . Let’s embark on this cosmic adventure together!

Table of Contents

Exploring the Neighboring Planet: Understanding the Duration of a Journey to Venus

Title: Exploring the Neighboring Planet: Understanding the Duration of a Journey to Venus

Introduction: Venus, our neighboring planet, has long fascinated astronomers and space enthusiasts alike. With its similar size and composition to Earth , scientists yearn to uncover its mysteries and potential for sustaining life . However, before embarking on a journey to Venus, it is crucial to comprehend the duration such a voyage would entail.

Factors Influencing Travel Time: Several key factors impact the duration of a journey to Venus. The most significant determinants include the distance between Earth and Venus, the speed of the spacecraft, and the trajectory chosen for the mission.

Distance: Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of approximately 108 million kilometers, which can vary due to its elliptical orbit . When Earth and Venus align favorably, this distance can shrink to about 40 million kilometers, making it more feasible for interplanetary travel.

Speed: The speed of the spacecraft plays a pivotal role in determining the duration of the journey. Various propulsion systems, such as chemical rockets or advanced ion engines, can be utilized to achieve high velocities necessary for an efficient trip to Venus. However, reaching the required speeds to traverse these vast distances remains a significant challenge.

Trajectory: Choosing the optimal trajectory is essential for minimizing travel time. Scientists aim to leverage gravitational assist maneuvers, also known as gravity slingshots, to gain speed by utilizing the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies like the Moon or even planets like Jupiter . By carefully planning the trajectory, travel time can be significantly reduced.

Past Mission Accomplishments: Numerous missions have ventured towards Venus, providing valuable insights into travel durations. Previous expeditions, such as the Mariner, Magellan, and Venus Express missions, have taken anywhere from several months to a few years to reach Venus, depending on the chosen trajectory and propulsion systems employed.

Future Prospects: As technology continues to advance, future missions to Venus hold great promise. Concepts like solar sails and nuclear propulsion offer the potential for increased speeds and shorter travel times. Additionally, advancements in precision navigation and trajectory planning will enable more optimized routes and reduced mission durations.

Conclusion: While the duration of a journey to Venus highly depends on several factors, including distance, speed, and trajectory, scientists are continuously striving to minimize travel times. By developing innovative propulsion systems and leveraging gravitational assists, humanity’s exploration of Venus is set to become more efficient and intriguing in the coming years.

Here’s Why We Should Have Emerged on Venus Instead of Earth

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/oXy7B7DvB3E”/]

Planet Venus Live View through my Telescope

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/cHb1dN5k-TI”/]

Frequent questions

How long does it take for a spacecraft to travel from earth to venus.

A spacecraft can take anywhere from a few months to over a year to travel from Earth to Venus, depending on the trajectory chosen and the speed of the spacecraft. The shortest possible journey is called a Hohmann transfer orbit , which takes approximately 4-5 months. However, this requires precise timing and alignment between Earth and Venus. On average, a typical mission to Venus takes around 6-7 months. It is important to note that these timeframes are estimates and can vary based on the specific mission design and the capabilities of the spacecraft being used.

What is the average duration of a journey from Earth to Venus?

The average duration of a journey from Earth to Venus depends on several factors, including the alignment of the two planets in their respective orbits. On average, it takes about **5 months** to travel from Earth to Venus using current space exploration technology. However, this timeframe can vary significantly depending on the specific mission design and the propulsion system used. Some missions have had shorter travel times of around 4 months, while others have taken longer, up to 6 months or more. It is worth noting that these estimates are based on unmanned missions, as no crewed missions have been sent to Venus thus far.

Can you provide information on the approximate travel time required for a mission to Venus?

A mission to Venus involves a significant amount of time for travel due to the distances involved in interplanetary travel. The actual duration can vary depending on several factors such as the launch window, trajectory chosen, and the speed of the spacecraft.

On average, it takes around 3-4 months to reach Venus from Earth. This estimate considers a Hohmann transfer orbit, which is a common trajectory used for interplanetary missions. However, it’s important to note that this timeframe is just an approximation and can be influenced by various factors.

The Hohmann transfer orbit aims to take advantage of the gravitational pull of both Earth and Venus to achieve the most efficient path. It involves launching the spacecraft when Earth and Venus are suitably aligned, allowing for a trajectory that requires less energy . The journey itself is characterized by a gradual increase in velocity as the spacecraft moves away from Earth and towards Venus.

It’s worth mentioning that there have been missions that took longer or shorter durations to reach Venus. For instance, the Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, used multiple Venus gravity assists over a period of about 6 years to gradually decrease its distance to the Sun , ultimately reaching Venus multiple times. These Venus flybys were utilized to adjust the spacecraft’s trajectory and achieve specific scientific goals related to studying the Sun’s corona.

In summary, while the average travel time for a mission to Venus is approximately 3-4 months using a Hohmann transfer orbit, it’s crucial to consider that actual mission durations can differ based on various factors and mission objectives.

In conclusion, the journey to Venus, our neighboring planet, is an intriguing feat that requires careful planning and precise calculations. With its proximity to Earth, one might assume that reaching Venus would be a relatively short journey. However, due to its elliptical orbit and varying distances from Earth, the time it takes to travel to Venus can span anywhere from 3 to 4 months, on average.

Understanding the dynamics of planetary orbits and utilizing launch windows are crucial in determining the most efficient route to Venus. The Hohmann transfer orbit is often used, taking advantage of the gravitational pull of both Earth and Venus to propel spacecraft towards their destination.

Additionally, the time it takes to reach Venus can be influenced by several factors such as the propulsion system used, the desired trajectory, and the mission objectives. Future advancements in propulsion technology, such as ion propulsion or nuclear propulsion, may significantly reduce travel times to Venus and other celestial bodies in the solar system .

As we continue to explore the wonders of our solar system and beyond, the knowledge gained from missions to Venus will continue to shape our understanding of planetary processes and the potential for life beyond Earth. It is through these ambitious journeys that we push the boundaries of human exploration and unravel the mysteries of the universe . So, while the journey to Venus may not be a quick jaunt, the discoveries awaiting us there make it a voyage well worth the time and effort.

As we gaze towards the skies, let us remain curious and inspired by the vastness of space, and let our journeys to Venus and beyond serve as a testament to our insatiable thirst for knowledge and exploration.

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Our Universe, Explored

How Far Away is Venus & How Long Does It Take To Travel There?

Venus, often heralded as Earth’s sister planet due to its similar size and proximity, is the second planet from the Sun in our Solar System.

Although it is similar in mass and composition to Earth , the conditions on Venus are vastly different, with a thick, toxic atmosphere and surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead.

The distance between Earth and Venus changes as both planets orbit the Sun, but on average, Venus is approximately 25 million miles (40 million kilometers) away from Earth.

This distance can shrink to about 24 million miles (38 million kilometers) when the two planets are at their closest approach, an event that occurs roughly every 584 days when Earth catches up to Venus in its orbit.

The temporal gap between Earth and Venus is as dynamic as their spatial distance. A light beam would take just over two minutes to travel from one planet to the other at their closest approach.

As for human-made spacecraft, the journey time depends on the flight path and propulsion technology used; past missions have taken anywhere from 3 to 6 months to reach Venus.

Table of Contents

Orbital Characteristics and Distance from Earth

Understanding the intricacies of Venus’ orbit and how the distance from Earth is calculated sheds light on the complexities of our neighboring planet’s journey around the Sun.

Orbital Patterns of Venus

Venus exhibits an elliptical orbit around the Sun, which is typical for planets in our solar system. This elliptical path means that its distance from the Sun varies throughout its orbit. The closest point in Venus’ orbit to the Sun is termed perihelion, and the farthest point is known as aphelion .

Venus completes an orbit around the Sun in about 224.7 Earth days, and due to its less elliptical orbit compared to other planets, its distance from the Sun does not fluctuate as drastically.

Orbital Events:

• Inferior conjunction : When Venus is directly between Earth and the Sun.
• Superior conjunction : When Venus is on the opposite side of the Sun, relative to Earth.

These conjunctions are significant for observing Venus from Earth and are a part of its synodic period , which accounts for the apparent motion of Venus as observed from Earth, taking approximately 584 days .

Calculating Distance to Venus

The distance between Venus and Earth fluctuates as both planets orbit the Sun. At its closest approach, known as inferior conjunction, Venus comes to about 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) away from Earth.

Conversely, at superior conjunction, the distance can extend up to about 258 million kilometers (160 million miles). On average, Venus is approximately 41 million kilometers (25 million miles) from Earth.

This distance is measured in astronomical units (AU), with one AU being the average distance from Earth to the Sun.

Distance Ranges:

• Closest approach (inferior conjunction): ~42 million km (~26 million miles)
• Farthest point (superior conjunction): ~258 million km (~160 million miles)
• Average distance: ~41 million km (~25 million miles)

Calculations of this nature are complex because both planets are constantly moving, which means their relative positions must be continuously accounted for to determine the current distance.

Venus in Space Exploration and Observation

Venus has captivated both ancient and modern observers, becoming a key object in space exploration with numerous missions launched to unveil its secrets.

Historical Observations and Studies

The study of Venus dates back to ancient civilizations, with the Greeks and Romans attributing significant mythological importance to the planet, often associated with the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

It was Galileo Galilei’s telescopic observations in the 1610s that revolutionized our understanding of Venus and provided concrete evidence that Venus orbited the Sun.

Through his telescope, Galileo observed the phases of Venus , which matched those of the moon, reinforcing the heliocentric model of the solar system.

Space Missions to Venus

The history of Venus exploration began with Mariner 2 , the first spacecraft to flyby Venus on December 14, 1962. This NASA mission provided the first measurements of Venus’s surface temperature and atmospheric properties. Following Mariner 2, the Soviet Union’s Venera program made significant contributions:

• Venera 1 : Launched in 1961 but lost contact before reaching Venus.
• Venera 4 : Successfully entered the Venusian atmosphere in 1967, returning data.
• Venera 7 : First spacecraft to successfully land on Venus in 1970.
• Venera 10 : Returned images of the Venusian surface in 1975.

The Magellan spacecraft (1989-1994) mapped 98% of the planet’s surface, providing high-resolution radar images and contributing valuable topographic data.

More recently, the European Space Agency’s Venus Express orbited Venus from 2006 to 2014, studying its atmosphere and surface conditions to understand the planet’s meteorological phenomena.

Future missions, announced by NASA, aim to return to Venus within the coming decades to build upon previous data and expand our understanding of our neighboring planet through in-situ exploration and atmospheric analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section addresses some of the most common queries regarding Venus’s distance from Earth, travel time to the planet, its physical properties, rotation period, moon count, and atmospheric conditions.

What is the minimum and maximum distance between Venus and Earth?

Venus’s distance from Earth varies due to the elliptical orbits of the planets. At its closest approach, known as inferior conjunction, Venus is approximately 25 million miles (40 million kilometers) from Earth.

When farthest, the distance can extend to about 160 million miles (257 million kilometers).

How much time would it take a spacecraft to reach Venus from Earth?

The travel time from Earth to Venus for a spacecraft varies depending on the trajectory and technology used. Historically, missions such as NASA’s Mariner 2, which flew by Venus in 1962, have taken about 3.5 months to get to Venus.

What are the physical characteristics and composition of Venus?

Venus is similar in structure and size to Earth, earning it the nickname “Earth’s Twin.” The planet has a rocky body with a metallic iron core and silicate rock mantle and crust. Its atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid.

How does the length of a day on Venus compare to that of Earth?

One day on Venus (a single rotation on its axis) lasts for about 243 Earth days, which is longer than a Venusian year (225 Earth days). Venus also rotates in the opposite direction to most planets in the solar system.

Does Venus have any moons, and if not, why?

Venus does not have any moons. The reason is still a subject of research. It’s hypothesized that Venus’ close proximity to the Sun and heavy volcanic activity in its past might have played a role in the absence of natural satellites.

What are the surface temperatures and atmospheric conditions on Venus?

Venus has surface temperatures around 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius), hot enough to melt lead. The atmosphere is thick and heavy, exerting pressure equivalent to being 900 meters underwater on Earth. Its atmosphere predominantly consists of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid, contributing to a strong greenhouse effect.

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How Long Does It Take To Get To Venus?

Valerii siergieiev.

• October 16, 2023

What is the distance between Earth and Venus?

The distance between Earth and Venus changes regularly due to their elliptical orbits around the Sun. The two planets are approximately 162 million miles apart at their most significant distance. The closest and farthest distances between Earth and Venus can wax and wane over time, with Venus usually being 257 million kilometers away. However, the closest distance between Earth and Venus occurs in inferior conjunction at the thinnest part of their orbits, approximately 41 million km (September 26, 2023). This close approach between Earth and Venus occurs every 584 days, and Mercury is closer to Earth most of the time than Venus. From the point of view of the location of the solar system planets, Venus is the closest planet to Earth.

What is the flight time to Venus?

The United States and Russia used spacecraft to fly to the planet. The flight to Venus usually took 3-6 months. Mariner-2, USA, made the first successful flight to Venus. This spacecraft was launched on August 8, 1962, and made a successful flyby of the planet on December 14, 1962. The flight to it took 110 days from the moment of launch to arrival at the planet. The last spacecraft launched to the planet was ESA’s Venus Express. It was launched on November 9, 2005, and reached it in 153 days.

Venus Express has been in orbit around Venus since April 2006. It is the sister ship to the equally successful Mars Express. Together, they made major contributions to understanding how Earth-like planets work. Credit: ESA / AOES Medialab

The ships moved at an average speed of 8 to 25 kilometers per second.

The Japanese Akatsuki, launched in 2010, took more time to reach Venus because it had specific difficulties with maneuvers. It is currently operating in the orbit of the planet.

For example, the speed of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft can reach up to 700,000 kilometers per hour (about 430,000 miles per hour). It reached Venus just 52 hours after launch on August 12, 2018.

Two future NASA missions to Venus, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, are being prepared.

How long will it take them to cover the distance to the planet?

Banner image: ESA Image credit: https://spacegid.com https://www.esa.int

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Ongoing venus volcanic activity discovered with nasa’s magellan data.

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Radar Backscatter

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An analysis of data from Magellan’s radar finds two volcanoes erupted in the early 1990s. This adds to the 2023 discovery of a different active volcano in Magellan data.

Direct geological evidence of recent volcanic activity on Venus has been observed for a second time. Scientists in Italy analyzed archival data from NASA’s Magellan mission to reveal surface changes indicating the formation of new rock from lava flows linked to volcanoes that erupted while the spacecraft orbited the planet. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Magellan mapped 98% of the planet’s surface from 1990 to 1992, and the images it generated remain the most detailed of Venus to date.

“Using these maps as a guide, our results show that Venus may be far more volcanically active than previously thought,” said Davide Sulcanese of d’Annunzio University in Pescara, Italy, who led the study. “By analyzing the lava flows we observed in two locations on the planet, we have discovered that the volcanic activity on Venus could be comparable to that on Earth.”

This latest discovery builds on the historic 2023 discovery of images from Magellan’s synthetic aperture radar that revealed changes to a vent associated with the volcano Maat Mons near Venus’ equator. The radar images proved to be the first direct evidence of a recent volcanic eruption on the planet. By comparing Magellan radar images over time, the authors of the 2023 study spotted changes caused by the outflow of molten rock from Venus’ subsurface filling the vent’s crater and spilling down the vent’s slopes.

Scientists study active volcanoes to understand how a planet’s interior can shape its crust, drive its evolution, and affect its habitability. The discovery of recent volcanism on Venus provides a valuable insight to the planet’s history and why it took a different evolutionary path than Earth.

For the new study , published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchers likewise focused on archival data from Magellan’s synthetic aperture radar. Radio waves sent by the radar traveled through Venus’ thick cloud cover, then bounced off the planet’s surface and back to the spacecraft. Called backscatter, these reflected radar signals carried information about the rocky surface material they encountered.

The two locations studied were the volcano Sif Mons in Eistla Regio and the western part of Niobe Planitia, which is home to numerous volcanic features. By analyzing the backscatter data received from both locations in 1990 and again in 1992, the researchers found that radar signal strength increased along certain paths during the later orbits. These changes suggested the formation of new rock, most likely solidified lava from volcanic activity that occurred during that two-year period. But they also considered other possibilities, such as the presence of micro-dunes (formed from windblown sand) and atmospheric effects that could interfere with the radar signal.

To help confirm new rock, the researchers analyzed Magellan’s altimetry (surface height) data to determine slope of the topography and locate obstacles that lava would flow around.

“We interpret these signals as flows along slopes or volcanic plains that can deviate around obstacles such as shield volcanoes like a fluid,” said study co-author Marco Mastrogiuseppe of Sapienza University of Rome. “After ruling out other possibilities, we confirmed our best interpretation is that these are new lava flows.”

Using flows on Earth as a comparison, the researchers estimate new rock that was emplaced in both locations to be between 10 and 66 feet (3 and 20 meters) deep, on average. They also estimate that the Sif Mons eruption produced about 12 square miles (30 square kilometers) of rock — enough to fill at least 36,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The Niobe Planitia eruption produced about 17 square miles (45 square kilometers) of rock, which would fill 54,000 Olympic swimming pools. As a comparison, the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, Earth’s largest active volcano, produced a lava flow with enough material to fill 100,000 Olympic pools.

“This exciting work provides another example of volcanic change on Venus from new lava flows that augments the vent change Dr. Robert Herrick and I reported last year,” said Scott Hensley, senior research scientist at JPL and co-author of the 2023 study. “This result, in tandem with the earlier discovery of present-day geologic activity, increases the excitement in the planetary science community for future missions to Venus.”

Hensley is the project scientist for NASA’s upcoming VERITAS mission, and Mastrogiuseppe is a member of its science team. Short for Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography, And Spectroscopy, VERITAS is slated to launch early next decade, using a state-of-the-art synthetic aperture radar to create 3D global maps and a near-infrared spectrometer to figure out what Venus’ surface is made of while also tracking volcanic activity. In addition, the spacecraft will measure the planet’s gravitational field to determine its internal structure.

“These new discoveries of recent volcanic activity on Venus by our international colleagues provide compelling evidence of the kinds of regions we should target with VERITAS when it arrives at Venus,” said Suzanne Smrekar, a senior scientist at JPL and principal investigator for VERITAS. “Our spacecraft will have a suite of approaches for identifying surface changes that are far more comprehensive and higher resolution than Magellan images. Evidence for activity, even in the lower-resolution Magellan data, supercharges the potential to revolutionize our understanding of this enigmatic world.”

NASA’s VERITAS mission was selected in 2021 under NASA’s Discovery Program. Mission partners include Lockheed Martin Space, the Italian Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center, and Centre National d’Études Spatiales in France. The Discovery Program is managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Ian J. O’Neill Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-2649 [email protected]

Karen Fox / Charles Blue NASA Headquarters 202-358-1600 / 202-802-5345 [email protected] / [email protected]

Giuseppina Piccirilli Agenzia Spaziale Italiana +39 06 85 67 431 / 887 / 655 [email protected]

2024-073      

Related Terms

• Planetary Geosciences & Geophysics
• Planetary Science Division
• VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy)

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The moon, Venus, Mars and bright stars shine in a summer celestial gathering this week. Here's how to see it.

The crescent moon joins Mars, Venus and some of the brightest stars to kick off the summer 2024 skywatching season.

• June 19: Gemini stars Castor and Pollux
• June 20: Moon near Venus
• June 21: Summer solstice
• June 22: Crescent moon, Mars & Regulus

Last month, we called attention to a celestial assembly involving the moon, two bright stars and two bright planets adorning our western evening sky. 

Now, another, similar gathering will take place this week; an array that will change night to night as we transition from the spring into the summer season with the summer solstice on June 21. Here's a look at the how the stars of Gemini will shine with the moon, Mars and Venus as summer begins.

Related: The brightest planets in June's night sky (guide)

Monday, June 19: Twin Gemini stars Castor and Pollux

Want to check out Saturn's rings or the craters of the moon? We recommend the  Celestron Astro Fi 102  as the top pick in our  best beginner's telescope guide . 

The week's skywatching feast begins Monday evening on June 19 , the "Juneteenth" holiday in the United States. Starting at 45 to 60 minutes after sundown, look low to the west-northwest horizon. There, you will find a slender sliver of a crescent moon, less than two days after new phase. And directly above it you should be able to make out two stars, Pollux and Castor , marking the heads of the Twin Brothers, Gemini . There seems to be some evidence that when they were first chosen to represent the Twins, they actually appeared to be twin stars of equal brightness. 

If true, either Pollux has grown brighter or Castor had faded in the night sky , for there is a noticeable difference between them now. Pollux now appears a little over twice as bright as Castor and is also one of the 57 standard navigational stars . But Castor is the real "star" of Gemini.  Although it appears as a single star with the unaided eye, it is actually a system of six stars. In a telescope we see two, Castor A and B. Furthermore, both A and B are themselves doubles, though much too close to be separated optically (called spectroscopic doubles). Finally, well off to the south of the main pair is Castor C, a pair of dim red stars.  

Tuesday, June 20: Crescent moon near Venus

Tuesday evening, June 20: A slightly wider crescent moon will have shifted away to the upper left of the Twin stars and will be situated roughly a dozen degrees to the lower right of the dazzler of the evening sky, the planet Venus . Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10 degrees, so on this night, the moon and Venus will be separated by just a little over one fist's width in the sky.  

Venus, of course, continues to easily outshine everything in the evening sky, save for the moon itself.  It currently shines at magnitude  -4.6. Compared to Pollux and Castor, Venus outshines these luminaries by a factor of 100.

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Read more: The Native American night sky: 7 starry sights to see

Wednesday, June 21: Summer solstice and moon

Wednesday, June 21: This is the summer solstice and the first official day of summer for the Northern Hemisphere and on this evening the convocation of moon, stars and planets will be at its most pleasing to the eye. About an hour before the sun sets, face due west and look about halfway up in the sky to find the crescent moon.  

Now, if you have binoculars, train them on the moon and look to the left and slightly below the crescent and you should have no problem in picking out Venus, appearing as a bright speck of white light against the blue of the daytime sky. And once you've located it with binoculars , try to see if you can find it with just your eyes alone. If you have good vision and your sky is transparent and not too hazy, you should have little trouble seeing Venus through the daylight. 

Of course, once the sun has set and the sky darkens, both the moon and planet will command everyone's attention to the western sky for nearly three hours after sunset.

But Venus is not the only planet that is visible on this night. 

About 4 degrees to its upper left, appearing to shine rather feebly, will be Mars . You’ll likely need binoculars to see it at all in the bright twilight even after Venus becomes obvious. At magnitude +1.7, Mars now only ranks as a second-magnitude object and shines more than six magnitudes fainter or about 331 times dimmer than Venus! One reason is that Mars is only about half the size of Venus and is currently 200 million miles (322 million km) from Earth compared to just 53 million miles (85 million km) for Venus. 

And situated about a dozen degrees to the upper left of Mars, is yet another bright twinkler: the bluish 1st-magnitude star Regulus , brightest star of Leo the Lion. Regulus was noteworthy to ancient skywatchers as it was one of the four "royal" stars which were supposed long ago to rule over the four quarters of the heavens. 

Thursday, June 22: The moon joins Mars and Regulus

The moon, now a fat crescent nearly five days past new phase, will form a rather wide isosceles triangle with the star Regulus and Mars.  

The moon will mark the vertex angle with the "legs," measuring roughly 6 degrees, formed by the Regulus/moon and Mars/moon sides of the triangle, and Regulus and Mars separated by roughly 10 degrees marks the base of the triangle.

Not an "official" meeting

It would also appear that Venus is racing rapidly eastward each night and ultimately will reach the slower moving Mars. That scenario, however, will not come to pass. 

Venus already arrived at its greatest angular distance east of the sun on June 4, so from our viewing perspective it is now swinging around in its orbit and is heading back in the direction of the sun. Although seemingly chasing Mars down in the evening sky, the two will never get together.  

In fact, from June 19 through July 10, Mars undergoes a "quasi-conjunction" with Venus as the more brilliant world draws close but never quite catches up. A quasi-conjunction is defined as two planets approaching to within 5 degrees of each other — half the width of your clenched fist held at arm's length — without an actual conjunction in right ascension. They will appear closest together on July 1, when they will be separated by just 3.57 degrees.    

Editor's Note: If you snap an image of the moon and Saturn, and would like to share it with Space.com’s readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to [email protected] . 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Joe Rao is Space.com's skywatching columnist, as well as a veteran meteorologist and eclipse chaser who also serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications. Joe is an 8-time Emmy-nominated meteorologist who served the Putnam Valley region of New York for over 21 years. You can find him on Twitter and YouTube tracking lunar and solar eclipses, meteor showers and more. To find out Joe's latest project, visit him on Twitter.

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All About the Venus Cazimi and What It Means for Your Zodiac Sign

This astrological event is inspiring self-love and new heights of awareness

Love planet Venus will form an exact conjunction with the sun on June 4, marking the end of one synodic cycle and the beginning of another. Often referred to as a Venus Cazimi , meaning “in the heart” of the sun, the energy of Venus is essentially being purified and reborn by the sun’s consciousness and revitalizing energy.

Venus’ journey through Gemini is not solely about love and relationships; it's a multifaceted and thought-provoking transit based on our personal exploration. It takes on new dimensions, intertwining love and relationships with wit, curiosity and, most importantly, intellectual stimulation. To best understand the essence of Venus in Gemini, it’s important to note the love planet’s expression as well as Gemini’s celestial archetype. 

Venus represents appreciation, values, relationships and one’s perception of beauty in astrology . This mutable Air sign embodies the duality of the mind and the art of communication. It also symbolizes siblings, neighbors, peers, one’s communication style, immediate surroundings and default perspective. Check which astrological house Gemini occupies (between 14 and 19 degrees ) to understand the area of life where you’re experiencing this energetic shift.

This astrological event offers a unique opportunity for self-discovery and personal growth. Reflect on what you’ve learned and discovered about your values, relationships and thought processes around Venusian themes in the past four to eight years. As a “superior conjunction” for Venus, this marks a new journey and perspective, built upon everything we’ve explored and unveiled within ourselves, inspiring us to reach new heights of self-awareness and growth. 

Read on for more on what June's Venus Cazimi in Gemini means for your zodiac sign.

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Exchanges with your siblings, neighbors and close acquaintances are highlighted during this Venus Cazimi, Aries . Your ability to express yourself with charm and diplomacy could also peak, making it an excellent time for negotiations, presentations or important discussions. Harness this energy if you're looking to resolve lingering conflicts or misunderstandings, as you could also strengthen your connections with those in your immediate network. Your decision to engage in stimulating conversations and share your ideas could lead to exciting collaborations.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Your financial stability and sense of self-worth are top of mind, Taurus . However, with your planetary ruler sitting together with the sun in Gemini, this is a time to re-evaluate your relationship and mindset when it comes to your money and possessions and whether they're aligned with your values and priorities. Be mindful of impulsive spending (especially online, thanks to Gemini), as you are more likely to be drawn to a variety of activities or purchases that bring you pleasure. Invest in yourself and your long-term goals instead.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

To say you're glowing would be an understatement, Gemini. With Venus in the heart of the sun and in your sign, you're radiating a magnetic charm and come-hither energy that's nearly impossible to resist. Consider this your time to shine, as the world can't help but feel drawn to your charisma and captivating persona. Be sure to harness this energy for self-love, self-expression and your personal development. Your thoughts are a magnet for abundance, and you have the power and swagger to attract what you desire. Trust your instincts, and allow yourself to be seen and appreciated.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Grab a journal and keep it handy, Cancer . June's Venus Cazimi in Gemini is activating your mystical 12th house of closure, healing and spirituality, inspiring you to go within and explore hidden aspects of yourself. Connecting with your higher self supports your desire to release past wounds that have been hindering you, whether in terms of your sibling relationships or those within your immediate surroundings. Trust in the wisdom of your intuition, and don't hesitate to engage in practices like meditation, journaling and dreamwork, as you continue to gain clarity.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)

Your social life and sense of belonging in the world are center stage, Leo . During this month's Venus Cazimi, you could feel the desire to immerse yourself in a whirlwind of social activities, engagements and collaborations. In addition to expanding your network, this is an excellent time to forge new connections and strengthen existing ones, whether professionally or within your friend group. Be sure to embrace networking opportunities that allow you to share ideas and collaborate with like-minded individuals who share similar hopes and dreams for the future.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Take a stand and put your charms on display, Virgo . Venus Cazimi is illuminating your public 10th house of notoriety, career matters and reputation in the world, marking a pivotal time to showcase your expertise in the workplace and position yourself for success. Everything from your diplomatic approach to your communication style is bound to make a favorable impression on your superiors and authority figures while paving the way for personal and professional recognition. Trust in your ability to embrace leadership roles with confidence and grace.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Being ruled by the love planet comes with its perks, and June's Venus Cazimi is here to prove it, Libra . Charging up your expansive ninth house of belief systems and self-discovery, you could be inspired to broaden your horizons and explore new territories of knowledge and experience under this celestial event. Whether for education or travel, be sure to embrace these opportunities as they are opening your mind to new possibilities. Your ability to openly engage in deep conversations and philosophical debates that challenge your beliefs is pivotal to your personal expansion.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Your perception of intimacy is evolving beautifully, Scorpio . Under June's Venus Cazimi in Gemini, your intimate unions and shared resources are highlighted, as it is a time of profound transformation and regeneration. The more you allow yourself to release old patterns, the more you're able to embrace new beginnings within your interpersonal connections and financial affairs. Reflect on whether you're open to receiving support and assistance from those around you, and this could help you unlock hidden resources and opportunities for growth.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)

Your one-on-one relationships could benefit greatly from this astrological event, Sagittarius . June's Venus Cazimi is illuminating your seventh house of agreements, negotiations and significant others, offering you a chance to deepen your bonds and romantic relationships. Others of you could harness this transit in a professional setting, intentionally gathering with business associates or potential prospects for honest conversations. The key is to be open to new insights, as they will broaden your understanding of collaboration and lead toward a solid foundation for your success.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Strive for a balanced and harmonious lifestyle, Capricorn . After all, your health habits and daily routines are under the focus of this week's Venus Cazimi in Gemini. This is an excellent time to re-evaluate your fitness regimen, work routine and self-care practices, making adjustments as needed to support your physical, mental and emotional well-being. Harness this energy to streamline your workflow, organize your work space and prioritize tasks to help reduce stress and improve your levels of productivity. A little goes a long way.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Express yourself and indulge your heart's desires, Aquarius . Under June's Venus Cazimi in Gemini, everything from your creativity and self-expression to your romantic relationships is of greater emphasis. This is a time for you to explore new avenues of artistic inspiration and romantic connection, whether through a passionate love affair or a creative musing. Your talents and unique abilities are under the spotlight, but it's up to you to trust in the power of love and creativity to pursue what brings you joy.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

This marks a time of introspection and newfound perspective from your loved ones, Pisces . During this Venus Cazimi in Gemini, your fourth house of home, relatives and emotional landscapes are being illuminated, marking a time to nurture yourself and those you hold dear to your heart. In addition to engaging in heart-to-heart conversations, this is an opportunity to create a safe and supportive environment where you can relax, recharge and gather with those who matter most.

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