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At a glance, Venus and the Earth have many similar traits. Astronomers refer to Venus as Earth's sister planet. Both are similar in size, mass, density and volume. Both formed about the same time and condensed out of the same nebula. Before short-ranged observations of the planet occurred, many people speculated that the pale yellow clouds of Venus hid a warm, wet planet teeming with life. However, during the last few years scientists have found that the kinship ends here. Venus is very different from the Earth.

Venus is a dry and lifeless sphere. Venus is scorched with a surface temperature of about 482° C (900° F). This high temperature is primarily due to a runaway greenhouse effect caused by the heavy atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere to heat the surface of the planet. Heat is radiated out, but is trapped by the dense atmosphere and not allowed to escape into space. This makes Venus the hottest planet in the Solar System, even hotter than Mercury, which is much closer to the Sun than Venus.

Volcanic eruptions on the surface filled the skies with clouds of sulphuric acid, which gust around the planet at speeds as high as 360 kilometres per hour. The thick atmosphere pushes down on the surface with a pressure 90 times greater than on Earth (As much pressure as felt by a submarine at a depth of 3000 feet).

Venus is closer to the sun than any other planet except Mercury. Its mean (average) distance from the sun is about 67.2 million miles (108.2 million kilometers), compared with about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) for the Earth and about 36 million miles (57.9 million kilometers) for Mercury.

One day in Venus (the time it takes to rotate 360 degrees) is longer than a year in Venus (the time it takes to orbit the Sun). The Venusian year (orbital period) is about 225 Earth days long, while the planet's rotation period is 243 Earth days. So it is the only place in the Universe where one can celebrate New Year’s Eve twice in a day!

This phenomenon maybe a result of a strange and unexplained phenomenon – Venus spins backwards, from East to West. Venus is the only planet which spins backwards, all the others move in the same direction as their orbit.

The Venusian topography consists of vast plains covered by lava flows and mountain or highland regions deformed by geological activity. About 65 percent of the surface is covered by flat, smooth plains. On these plains are thousands of volcanoes, ranging from about 0.5 to 150 miles (0.8 to 240 kilometers) in diameter. Six mountainous regions make up about 35 percent of the surface of Venus. One mountain range, called Maxwell, is about 7 miles (11.3 kilometers) high and about 540 miles (870 kilometers) long. It is the highest feature on the planet.

In 1962 the Mariner 2 space probe flew by Venus followed in 1970 by the Russian Venera 7 which landed on Venus but lasted just 23 minutes before being burnt like toast and disintegrating. In 1990, Magellan arrived at Venus, mapping it in great detail to reveal craters and Volcanoes we never knew existed. Currently, the Venus Express probe owned by the European Space Agency is in orbit around Venus, is undertaking a detailed study of the Venusian atmosphere and clouds, and will also map the planet's plasma environment and surface characteristics, particularly temperatures.