A few days ago, a photo of Venus and Jupiter to be close contact was published, actually at that time; Venus was still somewhat far apart from Jupiter. Today to see a photograph taken on January 30th, the two stars are nearer. However, which is Venus, and which is Jupiter?

Something About Venus

In the sky at night, the moon is the brightest, followed by Venus, whose level of brightness is above negative 4 (the more negative the brighter, which I have also been confused by). Ancient Chinese called Venus “Taibai” ("Great White Planet"). When it appears in the morning, people call it "Phosphor"; but when it appears in the evening, people call it "Chang Gung Memorial Star." Western names it after Eros "Venus."

What is Taibai?

There is a saying in the Eight Diagrams “easy to Tai Chi of Health unveiled the war, unveiled four images and Health, Four Images Health nosy”. The “Tai” in both "tai chi” and” Taibai are the same meaning, which means the most, or rather, in Taoism as "nothing, little" reflects the Taoist view of the world from scratch. But here, I think that can be understood as very bright, the brightest!

Venus is a planet of "reverse jogging circle", reverse means its direction of rotation and revolution are opposite, that is, rotating from east to west, unique in the eight major planets in the solar system, so to Venus, the saying "the sun rises from the west" is the absolute truth. Jogging means the speed of its rotation is very slowly. The speed of its rotation on the equator is only 1.8 meters per second, which is not much quicker than the speed of man’s walking (it is 80,000 miles per day to stand still following the rotation of the Earth). Rotation of Venus needs 243 days once, 18.3 days more than its revolution around the sun, which means it, would turn a lap around the sun while it hasn’t finished a self-lap. Trying to imagine, isn’t it unbearably slow, too slow to understand.

Something about Jupiter

Jupiter is the super chunk in eight major planets, the largest in size and weight, with brightness in the level of negative two. In addition, Jupiter also has the largest number of satellites, including 63 satellites have been found till now. And therefore, it seems super chunk owns its own advantage, really good multi-multi-children.

Venus is a slow coach, while Jupiter is just the opposite. Jupiter has quick temper and its temper is absolutely "harsh." Among the eight major planets, its rotation is the fastest (almost 10 hours a circle), and it often changes “faces" (referring to the complex and volatile atmosphere around it). "Changing faces" may be related to its too fast speed. Its most famous “face” is the “great red spots in Jupiter."

From the map above, Jupiter, however, is that small one, because the farther distance from Earth than Venus makes it looks much smaller, than and not as bright as Venus.

Let us compare the size of planet and the sun. The number in the brackets indicates the range of distance from the Sun.

Venus is sister stars of the Earth. Both of two are similar in size and distance from the sun. People speculate life may have been happened in Venus. "Venus Express" of European Space Agency-ESA began its exploration trip on November 11th, 2005. Dense atmosphere on the surface of Venus is in the majority of carbon dioxide, and the serious greenhouse effect results in its temperature up to about 460 Celsius on the surface of Venus. So naturally, there can’t be any water, which would have been evaporated at such a high temperature.

News announcements: China Science and Technology Museum will hold a photographic exhibition on wetlands, people in Beijing can visit Building C of the Science and Technology Museum Hall free of charge before February 29th.