Venus: Earth's Hot Twin and the Planet of Love

What is Venus?

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the planet that comes closest to Earth: a rocky world 12,104 km across, almost Earth’s size, which is why it is called Earth’s twin. It orbits the Sun at an average of 108.2 million km (0.72 au) and goes around in 225 days. A thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere traps heat, making it the hottest planet, about 465 °C at the surface. It spins slowly backward, once every 243 days. After the Sun and the Moon it is the brightest object in our sky, the morning or evening star, never more than about 47° from the Sun.

Where Venus is in the sky

The ecliptic is the path the Sun appears to follow across our sky over a year, the plane of Earth’s orbit seen from Earth. Positions along it are measured in degrees, from 0° at the March equinox to 360°. The zodiac divides it into twelve equal 30° parts named after signs: Aries covers 0° to 30°, Taurus 30° to 60°, and so on. The signs are counted from the equinox, not from the star patterns they were named after; those constellations now sit about 24° further along, because Earth’s axis slowly wobbles (precession).

Venus moves along the ecliptic at up to about 1.25° a day and usually spends four to five weeks in a sign, longer in a retrograde year (above).

Venus in astrology

In astrology Venus stands for love, attraction, beauty, pleasure and what you value, money included. It rules Taurus and Libra. Its retrograde periods are read as a time to reconsider relationships and spending rather than begin them.