She’s Got It – an update from Josh Urban’s adventures on the farm and in the city. #212
| By Josh Urban – Nov 18 |
Appearing in the Altavista Journal, etc: The Evening Star
Howdy, folks, and welcome back to the show! Don’t you think the evening star has a nice ring to it? It used to be a Washington newspaper in the 1800’s. It’s the name of an Edgar Allan Poe poem, and before you throw this paper away with a “what is that boy talking about?”, it’s that airplane looking thing in the west at sunset. The planet Venus, that is.
Now, it’s the Evening Star. It’ll be the Morning Star in the spring as it travels around the Sun, wandering across the sky. The word planet is from the Greeks, meaning “wanderer.” The orbits must have messed with the guys trying to make precise star charts. Watch Venus yourself, comparing it to the background stars over a few weeks, and imagine the frustration. “Hey Achilles, I think I finished the chart…oh wait.”
For the casual sky-watcher, though, it’s a lovely sight. It’s the brightest planet in the sky, and is putting on a fine display shortly after dark. Burning with a steady, silvery light, it’s easy to mistake for an airplane (or a UFO, depending on who you ask–I’ve got eclectic friends).
Long before Bananarama recorded that killer track in 1986, people sang, wrote, and marveled at Venus in the night sky. They named it after the Roman goddess of love. Like many celebrities and false idols, Venus looks nicer than it acts. You wouldn’t want to stop by for coffee and a pep talk. While often called “Earth’s Twin” with a similar size, thick clouds of sulfuric acid trap the Sun’s heat, raising the surface temperature to over 700 degrees.
Visiting would have perks, though. You could cook a frozen pizza by holding it in the air for a mere sixteen seconds. If Amtrak ran interplanetary trains, maybe they wouldn’t have to microwave their dining car pizza when on Venus. Yuck. But I digress.
Since the planet rotates backwards on its axis, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. This happens slowly. A day is long–about 243 Earth days, but completes one orbit of the Sun every 225 Earth days, making a Venusian year shorter than its day. It rains sulfuric acid, or tries to. Ambient temperature is so hot, the acid rain evaporates before reaching the surface. The craters are named after famous women, though, so that fixes it. It sounds a lot like California. (Minus the crime.)
Fans of Jimi Hendrix will remember that we live on the “third stone from the Sun.” Venus is the second, between us and the Sun, which is important for our story. In 1761, astronomers used a transit of Venus–when the planet moves in front of the Sun–to accurately measure our distance to the Sun. They also used math. I’m still getting my head around it, so ask Google instead of me, but suffice to say, those guys were pretty smart. They built humanity a yardstick to measure the cosmos. It’s called an Astronomical Unit, or AU for short.
So go outside, and take a look at the western sky just after sunset. Ain’t she purdy? Crank the Bananarama while you’re at it.
“Yeah baby she’s got it.”
Catch you on the flip side,
Josh
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