Back in 1686, a French scholar by the name of Bernard de Fontenelle, wrote, "I can tell from here...what the inhabitants of Venus are like; they resemble the Moors of Granada; a small black people, burned by the sun, full of wit and fire, always in love, writing verse, fond of music, arranging festivals, dances, and tournaments every day."
Nice try, Bernard, but you had it all wrong. Back in those days, it was generally accepted that Venus was much like Earth. Venus is about the size of Earth, but that's pretty much where all resemblance ends.
Almost all of the planets in our solar system travel around the sun in a counterclockwise direction…all of them except Venus and Uranus, that is. Venus (as well as Uranus) travels clockwise. All of the planets except Venus and Uranus rotate on their axis in a counterclockwise direction. Venus and Uranus rotate clockwise.
Venus also rotates really slowly, too. A "day" on Venus would equal about 243 Earth days. Venus is covered by a thick layer of clouds that make studying the surface very difficult. In the last 30 years, however, astronomers have learned how to "see" through the thick cloud cover.
In 1962, Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to go by Venus. Since then, there have been 20 more missions. The first hard landing on Venus was done by Venera 4 in 1967. The first soft landing was done by Venera 7 in 1970.
In 1989, the Magellan spacecraft probe was launched. Magellan rotated around Venus from 1990 to 1995. It then burned up in the atmosphere of Venus. Magellan bounced radar signals off the surface of Venus and transmitted the data back to Earth.
