Obscured by thick clouds containing droplets of sulphuric acid, the surface of Venus bakes at over 700 °C. This temperature is hot enough to melt most metals, and makes Venus one of the most hostile environments in the Solar System.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, with a nearly circular orbit that takes around 225 days. Unusually, it rotates in the opposite direction to the Earth, a feature it shares only with Uranus. Its rotation is also very slow, with a day on Venus lasting 243 Earth days.
Despite its extreme environment, several spacecraft have studied Venus close up. Many have beamed back incredible images of the planet's surface, glimpsed though the thick cloud cover. The most successful mission was NASA's Magellan. It was the first craft to be launched from the Space Shuttle and imaged 98% of the surface. The European Space Agency's Venus Express Mission has recently gone into orbit around Venus and the results of this mission are keenly awaited.
