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The Planet Venus  -  Of all the planets, Venus is the easiest to find. A bright evening and morning star, it routinely presents a bright face to Earth. This luminousness is caused by the planet's highly reflective cloud cover.

This same cover, in the past, was the cause of fantastic speculation among both scientists and writers. Many imagined the world beneath it to be a tropical paradise. Others portrayed it as an endless ocean teaming with life. Such speculation continued up until Soviet landers penetrated Venus' upper atmosphere and discovered that the world was closer to hell than heaven (though, oddly enough, the planet Venus, though commonly associated with love, was also associated with the devil in some esoteric circles).

James Dinnerville  

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