I Can’t Sleep - The Planet Venus | Calm Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

Drift off with a calm, slow-paced bedtime reading about Venus. Discover the planet’s atmosphere, surface, and place in our solar system while your mind relaxes and lets go. You’ll learn something new without needing to stay awake, thanks to Benjamin Boster’s natural, soothing cadence. No whispering, no hypnosis, just gentle, fact-filled educationto ease insomnia, stress, and late-night anxiety. Press play and let this sleep podcast help you fall asleep peacefully. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Venus, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia - Venus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox Media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host Benjamin Boster. And if you enjoy the show, please follow so you never miss an episode. Today's episode is about the planet Venus. Venus is the second planet.

from a sun. It is often called Earth's twin or sister among the planets of the solar system for its orbiting being the closest to Earth, both being rocky planets and having the most similar and nearly equal size and mass. Venus, though, differs significantly by having no liquid water, and its atmosphere is far thicker and denser than that of any other rocky body in the solar system. It is composed of mostly carbon dioxide and has a cloud layer of sulfuric acid that spans the whole planet. At the mean surface level, the atmosphere reaches a temperature of 737 Kelvin. That's roughly 464 degrees Celsius or 867 degrees Fahrenheit. and a pressure 92 times greater than Earth at sea level, turning the lowest layer of the

atmosphere into a supercritical fluid. From Earth, Venus is visible as a star-like point of light, appearing brighter than any other natural point of light in Earth's sky, and is an inferior year planet, always relatively close to the sun, either as the brightest morning star or evening star. The orbits of Venus and Earth make the two planets approach each other in sonotic periods of 1.6 years. In the course of this, Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet. While on average, Mercury stays closer to Earth and any other planet, due to its orbit being closer to the sun. For interplanetary space flights, Venus is frequently used as a waypoint for gravity assists because it offers a more economical and faster route. Venus has no moons and has a very

slow retrograde rotation about its axis, a result of competing forces of solar tidal locking and differential heating of Venus's massive atmosphere. As a result, a Venusian day is 116.75 Earth days long, about half a Venusian solar year, which is 224.7 Earth years long. Venus has a weak magnetosphere, lacking an internal dynamo. It is induced by the solar wind, interacting with the atmosphere. Internally, Venus has a core, mantle, and crust. Internal heat escapes through active volcanism,

resulting in resurfacing instead of plate tectonics. Venus may have had liquid surface water early in its history with a habitable environment before a runaway greenhouse effect evaporated any water and turned Venus into its present state. Conditions at the cloud layer of Venus have been identified as possibly favorable for life on Venus. It was possible biomarkers having been found in 2020, which has spurred new research and mission to Venus. Humans have observed Venus throughout history across the globe, acquiring particular importance in many cultures.

With telescopes, the phases of Venus became discernible. became discernible, and by 1613 were presented as decisive evidence, disproving the then-dominant geocentric model, and supporting the heliocentric model. Venus was visited for the first time in 1961 by Venera 1, which flew past the planet, achieving the first interplanetary spaceflight. The first data from Venus were returned during the second interplanetary mission, Mariner 2, in 1962. In 1967, the first interplanetary impactor Venera 4 reached Venus, followed by the lander Venera 7 in 1970. The data from these missions revealed the strong greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. which raise concerns about increasing carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere

and their role in driving climate change. As of 2025, Juice and Solar Orbiter are on their way to fly by Venus in 2025 and 2026, respectively. And the next mission plan to launch to Venus is the Venus Lifefinder scheduled for 2026. Venus is one of the four terrestrial planets in the solar system, meaning that it is a rocky body like Earth. It is similar to Earth in size and mass, and is often described as Earth's sister or twin. Venus is very close to spherical due to its slow rotation.

It has a diameter of 12,103.6 kilometers, only 638.4 kilometers less than Earth, and its mass is 81.5% of Earths, making it the third smallest planet in the solar system. Conditions on the surface of Venus differ radically from those on Earth because its dense atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide, causing an intense greenhouse effect, with most of the remaining 3.5% being nitrogen.

The surface pressure is 9.3 megapascals, and the average surface temperature is 737 Kelvin, above the critical points of both major constituents, and making the surface atmosphere a supercritical fluid of mainly supercritical carbon dioxide and some supercritical nitrogen. The Venusian surface was a subject of speculation until some of its secrets were revealed by probes in the 20th century. Fenera Landers in 1975 and 1982 returned images of a surface covered in sediment

in relatively angular rocks. The surface was mapped in detail by Magellan in 1990 and 91. There is evidence of extensive volcanic and variations in the atmospheric sulfur dioxide may indicate that there are active volcanoes. About 80% of the Venusian surface is covered by smooth volcanic plains, consisting of 70% plains, with wrinkle ridges and 10% smooth or low-bate plains. Two highland continents make up the rest of its surface area, one line in the plane, planet's northern hemisphere and the other just south of the equator.

The northern continent is called Ishtar Terra, after Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, and is about the size of Australia. The Maxwell Montez mountain range lies on Ishtar Terra. Its peak is the highest point on Venus, 11 kilometers above the Venusian average surface elevation. The southern continent is called Aphrodite Terra, after the Greek mythological goddess of love, and is the larger of the two highland regions at roughly the size of South America. A network of fractures and faults covers much of this area. There is recent evidence of lava flow on Venus, 2024, such as flows on Sif-Mons, a shield volcano, and on Naiobi Planitia, a flat plain.

There are visible calderas. The planet has few impact craters, demonstrating that the surface is relatively young, at 300 to 600 million years old. Venus has some unique surface features in addition to the impact craters, mountains and valleys, commonly found on rocky planets.

Among these are flat-topped volcanic features. called Farah, which looks somewhat like pancakes and range in size from 20 to 50 kilometers across and from 100 to a thousand meters high. Radial star-like fracture systems called Novee features with both radial and concentric fractures resembling spider webs known as arachnoids and coroni circular rings of fractures sometimes surrounded by a depression. These features are volcanic in origin. Most Venusian surface features are named after historical and mythological women. Exceptions are Maxwell Montes, named after James Clerk Maxwell, and Highland regions, Alpha Regio, Beta Regio, and Ovda Regio. The last three features were

named before the current system was adopted by the International Astronomical Union, the body which oversees planetary nomenclature. The longitude of physical features on Venus is expressed relative to its prime meridian. The original prime meridian passed through the radar bright spot at the center of the oval feature, Eve, located south of Alpha Regio. After the Venera missions were completed, the Prime Meridian was redefined to pass through the central peak in the crater Ariadne on Sedna Plenicia. The stratigraphically oldest Tessera terrains have consistently lower thermal emissivity than the surrounding basaltic plains measured by Venus Express and Magellan, indicating a different, possibly a more felsic mineral assemblage. the mechanism to generate a large amount of felsic crust usually requires the presence of a water ocean and plate tectonics implying that habitable condition existed on early venus with large bodies of water at some point

However, the nature of Tessorterrines is far from certain. Studies reported in 2023 suggested for the first time that Venus may have had plate tectonics during ancient times, and as a result may have had a more habitable environment, possibly one capable of sustaining life. Venus gained interest as a case for research into the development of Earth-like planets and their habitability. Much of the Venusian surface appears to have been shaped by volcanic activity. Venus has several times as many volcanoes as Earth, and it has 167 large volcanoes that are over 100 kilometers across. The only volcanic complex of this size on Earth is the big island of Hawaii.

More than 85,000 volcanoes on Venus have been identified. imabed. This is not because Venus is more volcanically active than Earth, but because its crust is older and is not subject to the erosion processes active on Earth. Earth's oceanic crust is continually recycled by subduction at the boundaries of tectonic plates, and has an average age of 100 million years, whereas the Venusian surface is estimated to be 300 to 600 million years. years old. Several lines of evidence point to ongoing volcanic activity on Venus. Sulfur dioxide concentrations in the upper atmosphere dropped by a factor of 10, between 1978 and 1986, jumped in 2006, and again declined tenfold. This may mean that levels were boosted several times

by large volcanic eruptions. It has been discussed that the that Venusian lightning could originate from volcanic activity. In January 2020, astronomers reported evidence suggesting that Venus is currently volcanically active, especially the detective of Olivine, a volcanic product that would weather quickly on the planet's surface. This massive volcanic activity is fueled by a hot interior, which models say could be explained by energetic collisions when the planet was young, as well as radioactive decay, as in the case of the Earth. Impacts would have had significantly higher velocity than on Earth, both because Venus moves faster due to its closer proximity to the Sun, and because high eccentricity

objects colliding with the planet would have high speeds. In 2008 and 2009, the first direct evidence for ongoing volcanism was observed by Venus Express, in the form of four transient localized infrared hotspots within the rift zone Gannis Kazma, near the Shield volcano Maat-Mans. Three of the spots were observed in more than one successive orbit. These spots are sought to represent lava freshly released by volcanic airmen. eruptions. The actual temperatures are not known because the size of the hot spots could not be measured, but are likely to have been in the 800 to 1100 Kelvin range, relative to a normal temperature of 740 Kelvin.

In 2023, scientists re-examined topographical images of the Ma'at-Mans region, taken by the Magellan Orbiter. Using computer simulations, they determined that the topography had changed during an eight-month interval and concluded that active volcanism was the cause. There are almost a thousand impact craters on Venus, evenly distributed across its surface. On other cratered bodies, such as Earth and the Moon, craters show a range of states of degradation. On the moon, degradation is caused by subsequent impacts, whereas on Earth it is caused by wind and rain erosion. On Venus, about 85% of the craters are in pristine condition. The number of craters, together with their well-preserved condition, indicates the planet underwent a global resurfacing event 300 to 600 million years ago,

followed by a decay in vulcanism. Whereas Earth's crust is in continuous motion, Venus is thought to be unable to sustain such a process. Without plate tectonics to dissipate heat from its mantle, Venus instead undergoes a cyclical process in which mantle temperatures rise until they reach a critical level that weakens the crust. Then, over a period of about one hundred,

hundred million years, subduction occurs on an enormous scale, completely recycling the crust. Venusian craters range from three to 280 kilometers in diameter. No craters smaller than three kilometers, because of the effect of the dense atmosphere on incoming objects. Objects with less than a certain kinetic energy are slowed so much by the atmosphere that they do not create an impact crater. Incoming projectiles less than 50 meters in diameter will fragment and burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground. Without data from reflection, seismology, or knowledge of its moment of inertia, little direct information has been available

about the internal structure and geochemistry of Venus. The similarity in size and density between Venus and Earth suggests that they share a similar internal structure, a core, mantle, and crust. Like that of Earth, the Venusian core is most likely at least partially liquid

because the two planets have been cooling at about the same rate, although a completely solid core cannot be ruled out. The slightly smaller size of Venus means pressures are 24% lower, in its deep interior than Earth. The predicted values for the moment of inertia based on planetary models

suggest a core radius of 2,900 to 3,450 kilometers. There is now an estimate of 3,500 kilometers from the moment of inertia based on the rate of axial procession, measured between 2006 and 2020. The crust of Venus, is estimated to be 40 kilometers thick on average, and at most 65 kilometers thick. The principal difference between the two planets is the lack of evidence for plate tectonics

on Venus, possibly because its crust is too strong to subduct without water to make it less viscous. This results in reduced heat loss from the planet, preventing it from cooling and providing a likely explanation for its lack and internally generated magnetic field. Instead, Venus may lose its internal heat in periodic major resurfacing events. In 1967, Venera 4 found Venus's magnetic field to be much weaker than that of Earth.

This magnetic field is induced by an interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind, rather than by an internal dynamo, as in the earth. of the Earth's core. Venus's small-induced magnetosphere provides negligible protection to the atmosphere against solar and cosmic radiation. The lack of an intrinsic magnetic field on Venus was surprising, given that it's similar to Earth and size, and was expected to contain a dynamo at its core. A dynamo requires three things. A conducting liquid, rotation, and convection. The core is thought to be electrically conductive, and although its rotation is often

thought to be too slow, simulations show it is adequate to produce a dynamo. This implies that the dynamo is missing because of a lack of convection in Venus' core. On Earth's convection occurs in the liquid outer layer of the core, because the bottom of the liquid layer is much higher in temperature than the top. On Venus, a global resurfacing event may have shut down plate tectonics and led to a reduced heat flux through the crust. This insulating effect would cause the mantle temperature to increase, thereby reducing the heat flux out of the core. As a result, no internal geodynamo is available to drive a magnetic field. Instead, the heat, heat from the core is reheating the crust. One possibility is that Venus has no solid inner core

or that its core is not cooling, so that the entire liquid part of the core is at approximately the same temperature. Another possibility is that its core has already been completely solidified. The state of the core is highly dependent on the concentration of sulfur, which is unknown at present. Another possibility is that the absence of a large impact on Venus, contra the Earth's moon-forming impact, left the core of Venus stratified from the core's incremental formation and without the forces to initiate or sustain convection, and thus a geodynamo.

The weak magnetosphere around Venus means that the solar wind interacts directly with its outer atmosphere. Here, ions of hydrogen, and oxygen are being created by a disassociation of water molecules due to ultraviolet radiation. The solar wind then supplies energy that gives some of these ions sufficient speed to escape Venus's gravity field. This erosion process results in a steady loss of low-mass hydrogen, helium, and oxygen ions, whereas higher mass molecules, such as carbon dioxide, are more likely to be retained.

Atmospheric erosion by the solar wind could have led to the loss of most of Venus's water during the first billion years after it formed. However, the planet may have retained a dynamo for its first two to three billion years, so the water loss may have occurred more recently. The erosion has increased the ratio of higher mass deuterium to lower mass hydrogen in the atmosphere 100 times compared to the rest of the solar system. Unlike any other planet in the solar system, the Venus atmosphere rotates much faster than the planet body, with a period of four days versus 243 days.

This dense atmosphere, composed of 96.5% carbon dioxide, 3.5% nitrogen, both exist as supercritical fluids at the planet's surface, with a density of 6.5% out of water, and traces of other gases including sulfur dioxide. The mass of its atmosphere is 90%. 92 times out of Earth, whereas the pressure at a surface is about 93 times out of Earth, a pressure equivalent to that at a depth of nearly one kilometer under Earth's ocean surfaces. The density at the surface is 65 kilograms per cubic meter, 6.5% that of water, or 50 times as dense as Earth's atmosphere at 293 Kelvin at sea level.

The CO2-rich atmosphere generates the strongest greenhouse effect in the solar system, creating surface temperatures of at least 735 Kelvin. This makes the Venusian surface hotter than Mercury's, which has a minimum surface temperature of 53 Kelvin, and maximum surface temperature of 700 Kelvin. Even though Venus is nearly twice Mercury's distance from the Sun, and thus receives only around a quarter of Mercury's solar irradiance, double that of Earth.

Because of its runaway greenhouse effect, Venus has been identified by scientists, such as Carl Sagan, as a warning and research object linked to climate change on Earth. Therefore, Venus has been called a greenhouse planet, a planet under a greenhouse inferno. Venus's atmosphere is rich, and primordial noble gases compared to that of Earth. This enrichment indicates in early divergence from Earth's and evolution.

An unusually large comet impact or accretion of a more massive primary atmosphere from the solar nebula have been proposed to explain the enrichment. However, the atmosphere is poor in radiogenic Argon 40, a proxy for mantle degassing, suggesting an early shutdown of major magnetism. Studies have suggested that billions of years ago the atmosphere of Venus may have been much more like the ones surrounding the early Earth, and there may have been substantial quantities of liquid water on the surface. After a period of 600 million to several billion years, the rising luminosity of the sun and possibly large volcanic resurfacing caused the evaporation of the original water.

A runaway greenhouse effect was created once a critical level of greenhouse gases, including water, was reached in the atmosphere. Although the surface conditions on Venus are no longer hospitable to any terrestrial-like life that might have formed before this event, there is speculation that life may exist in the upper cloud, layers of Venus 50 kilometers above the surface where atmospheric conditions are the most earth-like in the solar system with temperatures ranging between 303 and 353 Kelvin and the pressure and radiation being about the same as it Earth's surface but with acidic

clouds in the carbon dioxide air more specifically between heights of 48 and 59 kilometers, temperature and radiation conditions are suitable for life. At lower elevations, water would evaporate and at higher elevation UV radiation would be too strong. The putative detection of an absorption line of phosphine in Venus's atmosphere, with no known pathway for abiotic production, led to speculation in September 2020 that there could be extant life currently present in the atmosphere. Later research attributed the spectroscopic signal that was interpreted as phosphine to sulfur dioxide, or found that, in fact, there was no absorption line.

Thermal inertia and the transfer of heat by winds in the lower atmosphere mean that the surface temperature does not vary significantly between the hemispheres facing and not facing the sun, despite Venus's slow rotation. Winds at the surface are slow, moving at a few kilometers per hour. But because of the high density of the atmosphere at the surface, they exert a significant amount of force against obstructions and transport dust and small stones across the surface. This alone would make it difficult for a human to walk through,

even without the heat, pressure, and lack of oxygen. Above the dense CO2 layer are thick clouds, 45 to 70 kilometers above the surface, consisting mainly of sulfuric acid, which is formed by a reaction catalyzed by UV radiation from sulfur dioxide molecules and then water, resulting in sulfuric acid hydrate. Additionally, the clouds contain approximately 1% ferric chloride. Other possible constituents of the cloud particles are aphoric sulfate, aluminum chloride, and phosphoric and hydride. Clouds at different levels have different compositions and particle size distributions. These clouds reflect, like thick cloud cover on Earth, about 70% of the sunlight that falls in them back into space.

And since they cover the whole planet, they prevent visual. observation of the surface. The permanent cloud cover means that although Venus is closer than Earth to the sun, it received less sunlight on the ground, with only 10% of the received sunlight reaching the surface, resulting in average daytime levels of illumination at the surface of 14,000 lux, comparable to that on Earth in the daytime with overcast clouds. Strong 300 km per hour winds at the cloud tops go around Venus about every four to five Earth days. Winds on Venus move at up to 60 times the speed of its rotation, whereas Earth's fastest winds are only 10 to 20% rotation speed.