|
Named Lucifer (Morning Star) and Hesperus (Evening Star) by the Ancients, Venus comes nearest to the Earth and is the brightest planet. At its greatest brilliance it can be seen by the naked eye in full sunlight within an hour of noon. Venus is nearly the same size as the Earth, diameter 7,600 miles. Mean distance 67,000,000 miles from the Sun, around which it revolves in approximately 225 days. At rare intervals it can be seen in transit across the Sun and observations of its transit in 1769 resulted in the first accurate knowledge of the Sun's distance.
|
