The Chandra space telescope first captured an image of these rays in 2001. The X-rays from Venus are not reflected but are produced by fluorescence. Venus has another 300 "smaller" volcanoes between 20km and 100 km in diameter. Whether these volcanoes are still active is an unsolved mystery W is for weather. Hot gases on Venus spiral up from the equator to the polar regions, moving the thick clouds of sulphuric acid around the planet.
Heat from the Sun drives the hot, superfast winds, moving gases to high altitudes as well as towards the cooler poles, where the gases lose heat and sink back towards the equator X is for the X-rays emitted by Venus. But the extra heat generated by the planet's position meant that any water on the planet boiled off and ended up as water vapour in the atmosphere. U is for ultraviolet, the wavelength of light used by the Pioneer space probe to take some of the first stunning images of the planet. The pictures showed the cloud patterns at the top of the Venusian atmosphere which helped scientists to understand its composition V is for volcanoes which dominate the Venusian landscape.
Venus's other neighbour is Earth, the third rock from the Sun. S is also for spin because Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction to most other planets with one Venusian day lasting 243 Earth days. T is for twin of Earth because of its similar size, mass, density and volume. If Venus had started out a little further from the Sun it might have formed oceans of water where life could have evolved and be a true twin of Earth. We never see the full Venus when the whole of the sunlit side points towards Earth because it becomes obscured by the Sun R is for rocky planet Like the Earth, Venus is composed of a sphere of rock. Some planets, such Jupiter, are composed of gas and are unsuitable for life.