
Explore how Venus, the Earth's closest neighbor, differs dramatically as a greenhouse planet with sulfuric acid rain and extreme winds, and learn its place in the solar system.
Discover Venus, the closest planet to Earth, with its extreme 900°F heat, sulfuric acid clouds, retrograde rotation, and how Magellan, Venus Express, and parallax measurements reveal its mystery.
Explore strategies for completing test questions, including answering aloud, writing, or printing, and access two pages of answer keys downloadable from the resource center.
Explore cross-curricular activities that connect astronomy lessons to English, character education, math, and chemistry. Access resources, key terms, and a related YouTube video.
The Venus curriculum meets standards for science and technology, with New Jersey as an example, credits NASA images with attribution, and uses A Briefer History of Time as a blueprint.
Explore how astronomy studies celestial objects beyond Earth using light to reveal stars, planets, galaxies, and the universe, and measure distance with astronomical units and light years.
Explore solar and lunar eclipses, from partial to total, including annular events, their umbra and penumbra shadows, and the sun, moon, and earth geometry that creates dramatic visuals.
Observe meteors year-round by looking up at night; learn how Earth intersects comet debris to produce predictable meteor showers like the Perseids, and discover tips for dark, long, comfortable viewing.
Explore the aurora, or northern lights, and how solar particles and Earth's magnetic field create vivid curtains, visible best near magnetic north and in Alaska, with photography tips.
Venus – Approach with Caution
Venus is the closest planet to the Earth but could hardly be more different. Spacecrafts melt and are pelted with sulfuric acid rain as they streak to the surface of Venus in pitch black skies. 900 mile an hour winds blow as we try to explore this greenhouse of a planet. When studying Venus it is best to approach it with caution.
This Course includes the following great BONUS LESSONS:
What on Earth is Astronomy?
Mini-Lesson: Eclipses
Mini-Lesson: Meteor Showers
Mini-Lesson: Aurora
Project Artemis: America Returns to the Moon
Venus – Approach with Caution
1. Objective
2. Warm-up activity
3. Venus through Earth’s history
4. Venus and its position in the Solar System
5. Phases of Venus
6. Superior and inferior conjunctions of planets
7. Planetary aphelion and perihelion
8. Eccentricity of orbits
9. The Venusian day
10. Retrograde motion
11. Terrestrial planets
12. Visible light
13. The Magellan spacecraft to Venus
14. The Solar System’s temperate zone
15. Venusian atmospheric and surface conditions
16. The Venera and Pioneer missions to Venus
17. Magnetic fields
18. Venusian geology and surface features
19. The Venus Express mission by the European Space Agency
20. Venusian transits and measuring distances within the Solar System
21. Parallax
22. Test questions
23. Cross-curricular activities
My name is Tony Ceraso and I will be your instructor. I sometimes run the planetarium and have written curriculum for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. I have also written curriculum for NASA’s school visitation program and teach on the college level in NJ.
My goal is for you to thoroughly enjoy this lesson. I love astronomy and I want nothing more out of our time together than for you to have a greater appreciation for the universe through the understanding of this material. Besides the lesson I’m going to preview for you now, the course includes warm up activities, test questions, and cross-curricular activities for you to download as a supplement.