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The surface of Venus is dominated by geologic features that include volcanoes, large impact craters, and aeolian erosion and sedimentation landforms. Venus has a topography reflecting its single, strong crustal plate, with a unimodal elevation distribution (over 90% of the surface lies within an elevation of -1.0 and 2.5 km) [1] that preserves geologic structures for long periods of time.
The early Earth during the Hadean eon is believed by most scientists to have had a Venus-like atmosphere, with roughly 100 bar of CO 2 and a surface temperature of 230 °C, and possibly even sulfuric acid clouds, until about 4.0 billion years ago, by which time plate tectonics were in full force and together with the early water oceans, removed ...
Although the surface conditions on Venus are no longer hospitable to any terrestrial-like life that might have formed before this event, there is speculation that life may exist in the upper cloud layers of Venus, 50 km (30 mi) above the surface, where atmospheric conditions are the most Earth-like in the Solar System, [106] with temperatures ...
The highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded may have been an alleged reading of 93.9 °C (201.0 °F) at Furnace Creek, California, United States, on 15 July 1972. [7] In 2011, a ground temperature of 84 °C (183.2 °F) was recorded in Port Sudan , Sudan. [ 8 ]
It is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" due to their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). The surface of Venus is covered by a dense atmosphere and presents clear evidence of former violent volcanic activity.
The very first visible-light images of Venus' surface from space have been captured by NASA's Parker Solar Probe, and it could help researchers piece together the mysteries of the distant planet.
Venus is similar in size and distance from the sun when compared with Earth, and some researchers believe the planet might have even had an Earth-like climate at some point.
The surface of Venus is comparatively flat. When 93% of the topography was mapped by Pioneer Venus Orbiter, scientists found that the total distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the entire surface was about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi), about the same as the vertical distance between the Earth's ocean floor and the higher summits of the Himalayas.