Atmosphere of Venus Facts for Kids

Venus's atmosphere

The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases that surrounds Venus. It is mainly composed of carbon dioxide. Its atmosphere is denser and hotter than the atmosphere of Earth. The temperature at the surface is 740 K (467 °C, 872 °F). The pressure is 93 bar (9.3 MPa). It is composed of carbon dioxide (96.5 %), nitrogen (3.5 %), sulfur dioxide (150 ppm), argon (70 ppm), water vapor (20 ppm), carbon monoxide (17 ppm), helium (12 ppm), hydrogen chloride (0.1–0.6 ppm) and hydrogen fluoride (0.001–0.005 ppm).

Images for kids

Composition of the atmosphere of Venus. The chart on the right is an expanded view of the trace elements that all together do not even make up a tenth of a percent.
Comparison of Atmosphere Compositions – Venus, Mars, Earth (past and present).
1761 drawing by Mikhail Lomonosov in his work on the discovery of atmosphere of Venus
Meridional (north-south) component of the atmospheric circulation in the atmosphere of Venus. Note that the meridional circulation is much lower than the zonal circulation, which transports heat between the day and night sides of the planet
False colour near-infrared (2.3 μm) image of the deep atmosphere of Venus obtained by Galileo. The dark spots are clouds silhouetted against the very hot lower atmosphere emitting thermal infrared radiation.
Photograph taken by the unmanned Galileo space probe en route to Jupiter in 1990 during a Venus flyby. Smaller-scale cloud features have been emphasized and a bluish hue has been applied to show that it was taken through a violet filter.
Venus transits the face of the Sun on June 8, 2004, providing valuable information on the upper atmosphere through spectroscopic measurements from Earth
This image shows Venus in ultraviolet, seen by the Akatsuki mission.
Venus In-Situ Explorer proposed by NASA's New Frontiers program
Artist's concept of the planned DAVINCI+ probe's descent stages through Venus' atomosphere