Venus

the most brilliant of the planets. It is the second in order from the sun and, like Mercury, is both an evening and a morning star. Venus flies around the sun in its orbit at a rate of about twenty-two miles a second. It is about four-fifths as heavy as the earth. Being nearer the sun it receives double the light and heat that the earth does. Astronomers say that Venus has an atmosphere, but they are uncertain whether the planet has water in its atmosphere. Venus passed between the earth and sun in 1874 and again in 1882, but the next transit will not occur for a hundred years. Among the ancients this planet was called Hesperus when an evening star, and Phosphor, or Lucifer, when a morning star.