Planet Venus Visible After Sunset

Image by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr

The brightest star in the night sky today is not actually a star but a planet. Planet Venus, the second planet from the sun is visible in the western sky just after the sun hides in the western horizon. It boast a magnitude of -3.9 that was brighter than any star in the dusk sky. Commonly mistaken as an airplane, the lonely planet can be seen just above the western horizon.

Planet Venus Trivia
- Planet Venus is named after the Roman equivalent of the Greek god love, Aphrodite.
- Galileo's observance of the phases of Venus led him to conclude that the Sun and not the Earth is the center of the Solar System. This was in agreement with the findings of an earlier astronomer, Copernicus.
- Planet Venus and not Mercury is the hottest planet in the Solar System. The cause of Venus' high temperature is the greenhouse effect due to its thick atmosphere of Carbon Dioxide.