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VENUS |
go back to beauty...
Named for the Roman goddess of beauty and love, Venus is the second planet
away from the Sun. Up close, and it has been so surveyed, the planet itself
is not exactly "beautiful. It is hot as Hades (see Pluto) with a true
"greenhouse effect" heating up its surface. It is ugily cratered, cracked, permanently
cloudy, and totally uninhabitable despite past suspicions to the contrary just a
generation ago (as propagandized by Little Green Men-happy sci fi writers
and science-populizers). Still, at the remote distance it is viewed by us
on Earth, as when it appears as an "evening" (west) or "morning" star (east)--
it's not a star, however--Venus looks magnificent. It is tinted a
whitish-yellow
and shines steadily without twinkling as all the stars do. At certain times
of the year and in its near-Earth crescent (!) phases, the planet is the
brightest thing in the heavens outside of the Sun and Moon (its cloud cover reflects
a lot of sunlight).
Here, Venus is our locus for things of beauty.
Would you like to travel to another planet?
