Venus

Venus is the solar system’s second planet, and while similar in size and mass to Earth, it is strikingly different in almost every other way. Venus has a retrograde rotation, meaning it rotates clockwise, as opposed to the counter-clockwise rotations of most of the solar system’s other planets, and its rotational period of 243 days is the slowest of all the planets. Venus’ day is also longer than its year, which is only 224.7 days long. Although Venus’ gravity is just slightly lower than that of Earth, the planet’s incredibly dense carbon dioxide atmosphere results in crushing atmospheric pressure at the surface 92 times greater than Earth’s. It also creates a powerful greenhouse effect, leading to surface temperatures of 735 K, making Venus the hottest planet in the solar system—hotter even than the surface of Mercury. Venus has no moons. Although it was the first planet to be visited and landed on by unmanned spacecraft from Earth in the 20th century, Venus has never been colonized by humans. Almost eighty years ago, Tycho Manufacturing and Engineering Concern was set to begin constructing a network of floating “cloud cities” in Venus’ upper atmosphere, but legal disputes over development rights halted the project and continue to this day. Mao-Kwikowski Mercantile, originally a legal firm involved in the litigation, used the profits it made from these lawsuits to expand its business interests and become one of Earth’s leading corporations. In any event, no cities were ever built in the skies above Venus, no colonists arrived, and the whole endeavor is now viewed as an epic failure in interplanetary colonization.

Type

Planet

Location under

Sol

Owning Organization

The United Nations

Contested By