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The planet Venus, the second closest planet to the Sun, is sometimes referred to as Earth's Sister Planet. This is because of its proximity and similar size to Earth. When it comes to the environment however it is a whole different story. It is a hellish place with extreme temperatures, pressures, and acidic rain. It is definitely not a place you would want to go for a field trip.
Venus is one of the brightest natural objects in the sky, behind the Sun and the Moon. And since it is an inferior planet (inside the orbit of Earth) it is always near the Sun. So the only times you can view Venus is shortly after sunset or shortly after sunrise depending on which side of the Sun it is currently on. When it is in view it is hard to miss do to its extreme brightness, at its brightest it can cast shadows upon the ground.
The brightness of Venus is caused by the high reflectivity of the clouds that cover the planet. They are always present and cause a lot of problems when it comes to observing the surface of Venus. The only way to penetrate the clouds and observe the land formations (other than a lander) is with radar. Over the last few decades we have completed full maps of the surface of Venus.
We have also seen the surface of Venus with the use of landers. These are particularly difficult to use because of the extremely high temperatures, that reach over 800 degrees Fahrenheit. The other issue is the extremely high atmospheric pressures, over 95 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. But thanks to extremely ingenious engineers we were able to successfully land quite a few landers on the surface of Venus. Most of them died rather quickly with the longest being around an hour worth of time spent transmitting data back to Earth.
It is also an interesting planet to view in the night sky with the aid of a telescope or binoculars. It is interesting to watch as time goes on especially because of the changing phases of Venus. Just like the Moon or the elusive planet Mercury, Venus has phases as it travels around the Sun. These phases are also due to the fact that it is an inferior planet.
The other interesting part of Venus being on the inside of Earth's orbit is that occasionally (twice every 100 years) we get to see Venus pass in front of the Sun, in what is called a transit. It is similar to a Solar eclipse, but since the disk of Venus doesn't cover the disk of the Sun there is almost no noticeable difference in brightness from Earth. When you view through telescopes though, the Sun can be used to learn about the composition of the atmosphere and how it interacts with space. The transit is also just a really cool extremely rare event that happens in our own solar system. The last on happened in 2012, and the next one wont happen until 2117, so if you missed it, you probably wont see it again.
Venus, Earth's Sister Planet, is an interesting and extreme place that humans are still learning about and exploring. Due to its harsh environment we probably will be working to study this strange world for a long time. The secrets of Venus will probably be hidden for generations, when we become a truly space fairing people.
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