Gustav Holst - II. Venus: The Bringer of Peace (The Planets)

Holst casts Venus, the Roman goddess of love, as the “bringer of peace” in this soothing and beguiling movement. Venus is about the same size as Earth, but closer to the sun. Fanciful depictions in the past of its surface portrayed a balmy paradise, and Venus is indeed our warmest planet. But under a planet-wide shroud of highly reflective clouds is a climate that has evolved very differently than Earth’s. Beneath high altitude electrified wind and 15 miles of sulfuric acid clouds, the unbreathable carbon dioxide air is a “greenhouse gone wild,” with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead and crushing atmospheric pressure 100 times greater than what we feel on Earth. Although not quite peaceful itself, Venus still has been a bringer of peace in at least one sense. Early satellite observations and study of the planet were among the first cooperative efforts of the Space Race between America and the Soviet Union.