In 1950 Ray Bradbury wrote a story called The Long Rain in which astronauts land on Venus and find it never stops raining. The inhabitants are humanoids with green skin. He finds that most of the surface of Venus is covered in water and only small parts are dry land. A man named Ransom is transported to Venus. In 1942 C S Lewis wrote a novel called Voyage to Venus. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a series of adventure stories set on Venus. It was followed in 1895 by a book called Journey to Venus by Gustavus Pope. The first story about Venus was an anonymous work called The Great Romance published in 1881. Some people imagined that though it would obviously be hotter than Earth it supported life and humans could live there. In the past, the surface of Venus was a mystery. People thought they were made of water vapor but they are actually sulfuric acid. The surface of Venus is shrouded by clouds. Then in 1639, Jeremiah Horrocks became the first person to observe a transit of Venus (When Venus comes directly between the Earth and the Sun it is visible as a spot moving across the Sun’s disc). Nevertheless, Galileo discovered that Venus has phases like the Moon. It’s a bright object in the sky but even when the telescope was invented the surface was hidden by clouds. Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love.
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