Susan Boehm, age 9, of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, for her question:

How long is a summer on Venus?

The golden planet, Venus, wears a veil of clouds so dense that no telescope eye can pierce it. Experts could track its path around the sun. They knew that its year was equal to about 224 earth days. But no one could see through its clouds and watch it turning. No one could figure out the length of its days. No one knew whether it had changing seasons. Then our probing spacecraft zoomed off for a closer look at Venus. They sent back a lot of messages. But so far, experts are not certain how long a day on Venus is. However, most of them are sure about the golden planet's seasons: It does not have changing seasons like those we have on earth.

At least, it does not have spring and fall and winter seasons. The surface of Venus is hot, very hot and dry all the time. Its summer season, you might say, lasts the whole year through. This is about 224 earth days long,, and when it ends the next scorching summer season begins. Some experts suspect that each day on Venus lasts longer than a year. But the night does not seem to be much cooler than its scorching day. So summer on Venus must last forever.