Venus

• Most similar to earth

  • nearly the same mass and size, hence same density Table20-2
  • underwent same formation process as Earth
    • accreting planetesimals ~ 10 million y
    • heat from infalling bodies and radioactive decay 10-100 My
      • “heavy bombardment” phase
    • started totally molten
      • heavy elements (Fe, Ni, etc.) sink to center
        • reason gold so rare -- it’s very dense and sunk to center
      • expect Fe core, basalt mantle, rock crust
        • same as Earth
      • Atmosphere very different
        • Earth (P=1 atm.) Venus (P=90 atm.)
        • N2 76% 4%
        • O2 23% zip
        • CO2 0.1% 96%
        • H2O oceans 3 km (300 atm.) very little
        • clouds H2O droplets H2SO4 droplets

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