Venus is a rocky, terrestrial planet like Earth, and likely formed the same way at the same time. It has a mass of 4.87 trillion trillion kilograms, about 82 percent that of its sister planet.

"Venus has 100,000 times less water than the Earth, even though it's basically the same size and mass." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s ...

Compared to that, Earth is way less harsh. So why are Earth and Venus called twins? It's because, Gilmore says, Venus, Earth and, even to some extent, Mars all started relatively the same.

Astronauts released it into space where it rocketed away from Earth and took a roundabout 15-month journey to Venus. From 1990-1994, Magellan used radar to peer beneath the thick clouds and map ...