Do you know Venus (金星)? Of the eight planets Venus is the nearest one to us. Venus was the Roman goddess(女神) of love and beauty. In Greek her name was Aphrodite. Venus and the Earth are almost the same size, and you would weigh almost the same on both planets. If you were 70 pounds on Earth, you would be 63 pounds on Venus.

    Venus is an "unfriendly" planet. Because of its thick cloud, you can't see the surface (表面). In many ways Venus is like the Earth. It has active volcanoes (火山), mountains and valleys, too. But Venus is too hot for life. It has the hottest temperature of the planets in our solar system,  about 480℃. Besides, the Earth lets heat out through volcanoes, hot springs, but Venus lets heat out in a different way. Venus has no moons. Scientists call Venus the Earth's sister planet because Venus and the Earth are almost the same size. For a long time most scientists thought that Venus probably had plants, animals, and possibly even human beings. However, because Venus is so hot, it is impossible for anything to live there.