Venus is the second planet in the Solar System in order of distance from the Sun, the sixth in terms of size, ordered from largest to smallest. Like Mercury, it lacks natural satellites. It receives its name in honor of Venus, the Roman goddess of love (the Greek Aphrodite). It is a terrestrial and rocky type planet, often called Earth's sister planet, since both are similar in size, mass and composition, although totally different in thermal and atmospheric matters (the average temperature of Venus is 463.85 ºC). Its orbit is an ellipse with an eccentricity of less than 1%, forming the most circular orbit of all the planets; it barely exceeds that of Neptune. Its atmospheric pressure is 90 times higher than terrestrial and is, therefore, the highest atmospheric pressure of all the rocky planets in the Solar System.
