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Atres Artes, v. 1, issue 3, 1946
Page 21
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Venus was the Roman goddess of Love and Beauty. In legend she was supposed to be daughter of Jupiter. She grew up to be quite a girl and all the gods wanted to marry her. However she kept putting them off until they became angry with her, and made her marry a lame fellow named Vulcan. She didn't like this deal very well, so she ran out on him and fell in love with three others gods. (One at a time, of course). One was our old friend Mars. It is reported that she was very fond of lovers, no doubt due to her own unhappy marriage, and went around helping them out of their troubles. But we science-fiction fans are interested in another Venus, or at least we should be. And that is the reason for this article, too few people know enough about the planet Venus. Of course no one knows very much about it but even that little helps. So you might try to remember the following things as you can never know these days when some one is apt to come up to you and ask, "Want to go to Venus?" Venus is the second planet from the sun, so far as we know, in what we Earth people call the Solar System. Next to Mars, Venus has been the favorite stomping ground for s-f writers since they decided that they might someday get pass the Moon. We have heard it described a hundred times in stories and sometimes even in poem, but except that it is all wet, they don't agree upon what it's like. As eaven the newest reader of Planet Stories knows, Venus is covered with clouds. So therefore, no one has ever seen the surface of our nearest planet. At times it is only about 26,000,000 miles away from us. That is when it makes an inferior conjunction, which simply means that it is in a straight line with us and the sun. But like the moon, when it is "new" we can't see it. It is just a black dot moving across the face of the sun. But don't rush out to see it, as it happens only every 584 days. And when it swings around to the other side of the sun, it is 169,000,000 miles away, and being behind the sun, we can not see it. Venus is a mere 67,000,000 miles from the sun while the Earth is 93,000,000. Venus is called our sister planet because it is more like our own than any other planet in the solar system. It's diameter is 7,700 miles, only 200 less than that of Earth's. This makes its supposed volume 92% of Earth's, and has 81% of Earth's mass. A piece of Venus weighs almost as much as a piece of Earth of the same size. In figures it works out as .88 of Earth's density. By the way, mighty Jupiter's real estate weighs only about 1/2 as the same piece of Earth. But if you're wondering what all this has to do with your trip to Venus, we'll talk about what you would find. Let us say that you and your friends are nearing the outer layers of clouds. The same clouds that have faced the Earth for centuries. It is not known for certain what these clouds consist of, but it is thought that they are something other than oxygen or water vapor like our own clouds. Some spectroscopic tests have been taken of the outer layer and no oxygen, or water vapor have been found, but don't worry too much, as science admits that it cannot reach more than one mile below the visable atmosphere. So as you drop through the swirling clouds, you may find anything. No one having ever seen the surface of Venus, of course, no one can tell you where to land, or even if you will find any. However, a planet that has almost the mass of Earth is pretty sure to have some land on it. ((Your editor feels that he might be able to contest the practicality of this last statement in that a planet doesn't necessarily need large land masses to have great mass. Water is pretty heavy stuff. As we are pretty dumb on science, we remain silent. Ed.)) please turn page -- Page 21 --
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Venus was the Roman goddess of Love and Beauty. In legend she was supposed to be daughter of Jupiter. She grew up to be quite a girl and all the gods wanted to marry her. However she kept putting them off until they became angry with her, and made her marry a lame fellow named Vulcan. She didn't like this deal very well, so she ran out on him and fell in love with three others gods. (One at a time, of course). One was our old friend Mars. It is reported that she was very fond of lovers, no doubt due to her own unhappy marriage, and went around helping them out of their troubles. But we science-fiction fans are interested in another Venus, or at least we should be. And that is the reason for this article, too few people know enough about the planet Venus. Of course no one knows very much about it but even that little helps. So you might try to remember the following things as you can never know these days when some one is apt to come up to you and ask, "Want to go to Venus?" Venus is the second planet from the sun, so far as we know, in what we Earth people call the Solar System. Next to Mars, Venus has been the favorite stomping ground for s-f writers since they decided that they might someday get pass the Moon. We have heard it described a hundred times in stories and sometimes even in poem, but except that it is all wet, they don't agree upon what it's like. As eaven the newest reader of Planet Stories knows, Venus is covered with clouds. So therefore, no one has ever seen the surface of our nearest planet. At times it is only about 26,000,000 miles away from us. That is when it makes an inferior conjunction, which simply means that it is in a straight line with us and the sun. But like the moon, when it is "new" we can't see it. It is just a black dot moving across the face of the sun. But don't rush out to see it, as it happens only every 584 days. And when it swings around to the other side of the sun, it is 169,000,000 miles away, and being behind the sun, we can not see it. Venus is a mere 67,000,000 miles from the sun while the Earth is 93,000,000. Venus is called our sister planet because it is more like our own than any other planet in the solar system. It's diameter is 7,700 miles, only 200 less than that of Earth's. This makes its supposed volume 92% of Earth's, and has 81% of Earth's mass. A piece of Venus weighs almost as much as a piece of Earth of the same size. In figures it works out as .88 of Earth's density. By the way, mighty Jupiter's real estate weighs only about 1/2 as the same piece of Earth. But if you're wondering what all this has to do with your trip to Venus, we'll talk about what you would find. Let us say that you and your friends are nearing the outer layers of clouds. The same clouds that have faced the Earth for centuries. It is not known for certain what these clouds consist of, but it is thought that they are something other than oxygen or water vapor like our own clouds. Some spectroscopic tests have been taken of the outer layer and no oxygen, or water vapor have been found, but don't worry too much, as science admits that it cannot reach more than one mile below the visable atmosphere. So as you drop through the swirling clouds, you may find anything. No one having ever seen the surface of Venus, of course, no one can tell you where to land, or even if you will find any. However, a planet that has almost the mass of Earth is pretty sure to have some land on it. ((Your editor feels that he might be able to contest the practicality of this last statement in that a planet doesn't necessarily need large land masses to have great mass. Water is pretty heavy stuff. As we are pretty dumb on science, we remain silent. Ed.)) please turn page -- Page 21 --
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