Planet

Venus

Earth's neighbour, similar in size, wrapped in a crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth’s twin in size, and the hottest planet in the solar system.

A radar view of the volcano Maat Mons on Venus. — Maat Mons on Venus, rebuilt from Magellan radar data (heights exaggerated). Credit: NASA/JPL

Venus is almost Earth’s twin in size and mass, but its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere creates a runaway greenhouse effect. The surface pressure is about 92 times Earth’s and the mean temperature about 464 °C, hotter than Mercury.

It rotates backwards (retrograde) and very slowly: one rotation takes 243 Earth days, longer than its 225-day year. Seen from Earth it is the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon.

Explore it in the orrery

Data sources

Key facts
Diameter	12,104 km	[1]
Mass	4.867 × 10²⁴ kg	[1]
Density	5.243 g/cm³	[1]
Surface gravity	8.87 m/s²	Derived from the dataset
Escape speed	10.4 km/s	Derived from the dataset
Rotation (sidereal)	243 days (retrograde)	[1]
Length of day	117 days	[2]
Orbital period	225 days	[3]
Axial tilt	177.4°	[2]
Mean temperature	464°C	[2]
Known moons	0	[2]
Average distance from the Sun (semi-major axis)	0.7233 au	[3]

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