stassen@spp2.UUCP (Chris Stassen) (03/10/86)
In article <519@imsvax.UUCP> ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) writes: > >There are two lines of argument, either of which alone would kill >Sagan's "super-greenhouse" theory concerning Venus stone-dead: the one >from Firsoff which I have quoted, and the fact that Venus shows no >difference in temperature between the day and night sides, even though >it's rotation is very slow (about forty some days if I remember right). Venus completes one rotation every 243 Earth days. However, its atmosphere is swirling around at 200 miles per hour -- which completes one rotation in under 5 days. Unmanned Venus probes have shown us that almost no heat reaches the surface directly from the Sun, so the 5-day (atmospheric rotation) figure is the one that you must struggle with when trying to disprove Sagan. -- Chris