Discover Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system. Nearly identical to Earth in size, Venus hides a crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere, sulfuric acid clouds, and surface temperatures that melt lead.
Venus has a surface temperature of about 465°C (869°F), hotter than Mercury despite being farther from the Sun, due to a runaway greenhouse effect.
Venus rotates once every 243 Earth days but orbits the Sun in 224.7 days, so its day is longer than its year.
Venus spins in the opposite direction to most planets. On Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
Venus is the brightest natural object in our night sky after the Moon, reaching magnitude -4.6 as the morning or evening star.
The atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide with surface pressure 92 times that of Earth, equivalent to being 900 meters underwater.
Venus is permanently shrouded in thick clouds of sulfuric acid that reflect about 75% of incoming sunlight.
Named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, because it shines so brilliantly in the dawn and dusk sky.
Known as Aphrodite, goddess of love, born from sea foam. The Greeks initially thought morning and evening Venus were two different stars.
Identified with Ishtar, goddess of love and war. Babylonian astronomers tracked Venus for centuries on the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa.
Venus was central to the Maya calendar and associated with Kukulkan. Its cycles were tracked with remarkable precision in the Dresden Codex.
Venus is visible as the morning star or evening star for several months at a time, brightest near greatest elongation from the Sun.
Easily visible to the naked eye. A small telescope reveals Venus going through phases like the Moon, just as Galileo observed in 1610.
Look west after sunset or east before sunrise. Venus is so bright it can sometimes be spotted in daylight if you know exactly where to look.
Venus shows a full set of phases. It appears largest and most dramatic as a thin crescent when it is closest to Earth.
In astrology, Venus governs love, beauty, pleasure, and values. It shapes how we relate to others, what we find beautiful, and how we attract abundance into our lives.
How we give and receive affection, and what we seek in partnership
Aesthetic taste, creativity, and appreciation of harmony
Money, self-worth, and the things we treasure most
Venus is hotter than Mercury because its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect. Surface temperatures stay around 465°C day and night, while Mercury, with almost no atmosphere, loses its heat after sunset.
Venus is called Earth's twin because the two planets are nearly the same size, mass, and composition. Venus is 95% of Earth's diameter and 82% of its mass, but its surface conditions could not be more different.
Yes. Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and is easily visible to the naked eye as the morning star or evening star near sunrise or sunset.
The surface of Venus is far too hot and hostile for life as we know it. However, some scientists have proposed that microbial life could potentially survive in the temperate cloud layers about 50 km above the surface, a hypothesis future missions aim to test.