What year was Venus first discovered?

Answer 1

Since Venus can be seen with the naked eye, no one really knows who discovered Venus. Venus' beautiful color made it easy for ancient astronomers to find it in the night sky long before the invention of the telescope.
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Venus is quite bright, so it was easily observed even in very primitive times. Some ancient cultures did not recognized it as a planet, but thought in terms of a "morning star" and an "evening star." The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, dated 1581 BC, shows that the Babylonians made detailed observations of Venus and understood that it was a single entity.
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It depends on what you mean by discover. Because Venus is so bright, the first caveman who went outside at dusk or dawn surely noticed it. The ancient Greeks knew enough about it to know that it was different from other ''stars''. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were also known to the ancients. This probably includes among many others the Chinese, Babylonian, and early American cultures which were relatively sophisticated. Galileo in 1610 was first to observe that Venus had a visible disk and that it had phases like the moon so perhaps he could be considered to have discovered the modern Venus. Captain James Cook made observations of a ''Transit of Venus'' in 1776-1779.

Answer 2

Venus is clearly visible without a telescope in the morning and evening sky, and it was easily seen by prehistoric people. Venus had no need of discovery.

Answer 3

Venus is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, so was 'discovered' ages ago. Long before any records were kept.