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Fun Facts About Venus

Hotter than Mercury and with a day longer than its year: true facts about Venus.

A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.

Venus is the hottest planet, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.

After the Moon, Venus is the brightest natural object in the night sky.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun.

Venus spins backward.

The air pressure on Venus is about 90 times Earth’s.

Venus is covered in clouds of sulfuric acid.

Venus’s atmosphere is about 96% carbon dioxide.

The surface of Venus is about 465°C.

The first photos from another planet’s surface came from Venus.

No lander has survived on Venus for more than about two hours.

Venus sometimes crosses in front of the Sun.

Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Venus has more volcanoes than any other planet.

Venus’s surface was mapped by radar.

Venus’s clouds race around the planet in about four days.

A year on Venus lasts about 225 Earth days.

Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet.

Venus has phases like the Moon.

Almost every feature on Venus is named after a woman.

Scientists have debated for decades whether Venus has lightning.

A 2020 study sparked debate about possible life in Venus’s clouds.

New missions to Venus are planned.

On Venus, the time from one sunrise to the next is about 117 Earth days.

You cannot see Venus’s surface with a normal telescope.

Venus has strange flat volcanoes called pancake domes.

Much of Venus’s surface may be relatively young.

Venus may once have had water on its surface.

Fun Facts About Venus: all 30, explained

A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
Venus takes about 243 Earth days to spin once on its axis, but only about 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun. It also spins backwards compared with most planets, so on Venus the Sun would rise in the west.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus is the hottest planet, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
Venus’s thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat, keeping the surface at around 465 °C, hot enough to melt lead. Mercury has almost no atmosphere, so its heat escapes.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
After the Moon, Venus is the brightest natural object in the night sky.
Venus is bright because it is close and covered in reflective clouds. It is often called the morning or evening star because it shines near sunrise or sunset.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus is the second planet from the Sun.
It is the closest planet to Earth in size and is sometimes called Earth’s twin.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus spins backward.
Compared with most planets, it rotates in the opposite direction, so the Sun rises in the west there.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The air pressure on Venus is about 90 times Earth’s.
That is like being about 900 meters under the sea on Earth.
Source: Atmosphere of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus is covered in clouds of sulfuric acid.
The thick clouds reflect sunlight, which is one reason Venus shines so brightly.
Source: Atmosphere of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus’s atmosphere is about 96% carbon dioxide.
This creates a runaway greenhouse effect that traps heat.
Source: Atmosphere of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The surface of Venus is about 465°C.
That is hot enough to melt lead, day and night.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus is called the morning star and the evening star.
It is often visible just before sunrise or just after sunset, and ancient people sometimes thought these were two different objects.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The first spacecraft to land on another planet landed on Venus.
The Soviet Venera 7 probe touched down in 1970 and sent signals from the surface.
Source: Venera 7 (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The first photos from another planet’s surface came from Venus.
Venera 9 sent back images in 1975 before the heat and pressure destroyed it.
Source: Venera 9 (Wikipedia) · Fact card
No lander has survived on Venus for more than about two hours.
The record is held by Venera 13 in 1982, which lasted about 127 minutes.
Source: Venera 13 (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus sometimes crosses in front of the Sun.
Transits of Venus come in pairs eight years apart, more than a century apart. The last was in 2012 and the next is in 2117.
Source: Transit of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.
It is the only planet named after a female figure.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus has more volcanoes than any other planet.
Radar maps show hundreds of large volcanoes, and recent studies suggest some may still be active.
Source: Volcanism on Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus’s surface was mapped by radar.
NASA’s Magellan spacecraft mapped almost the whole surface through the clouds in the early 1990s.
Source: Magellan (spacecraft) (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus’s clouds race around the planet in about four days.
The upper atmosphere moves about 60 times faster than the planet turns, a pattern called super-rotation.
Source: Atmosphere of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
A year on Venus lasts about 225 Earth days.
Its slow spin means one Venus day lasts about 243 Earth days.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet.
At its closest it is about 38 million kilometers away.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus has phases like the Moon.
Galileo’s observations of these phases in 1610 supported the idea that planets orbit the Sun.
Source: Phases of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Almost every feature on Venus is named after a woman.
The one main exception is Maxwell Montes, its highest mountain, named after physicist James Clerk Maxwell.
Source: Maxwell Montes (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Scientists have debated for decades whether Venus has lightning.
Spacecraft have recorded radio bursts that may be lightning, but the evidence is still argued over.
Source: Atmosphere of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
A 2020 study sparked debate about possible life in Venus’s clouds.
Astronomers reported phosphine, a gas linked to life on Earth, but later studies disputed the detection.
Source: Phosphine (Wikipedia) · Fact card
New missions to Venus are planned.
NASA’s VERITAS and DAVINCI and Europe’s EnVision are being developed to study the planet.
Source: EnVision (Wikipedia) · Fact card
On Venus, the time from one sunrise to the next is about 117 Earth days.
Its backward spin and orbit combine to give a solar day shorter than its rotation.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
You cannot see Venus’s surface with a normal telescope.
Its clouds hide the surface completely; we see it only with radar or by landing.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus has strange flat volcanoes called pancake domes.
They were formed by thick, sticky lava and can be tens of kilometers across.
Source: Pancake dome (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Much of Venus’s surface may be relatively young.
Few craters suggest the surface was largely resurfaced by volcanic activity within the last several hundred million years.
Source: Geology of Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Venus may once have had water on its surface.
Some studies suggest early Venus could have had shallow oceans before a runaway greenhouse effect boiled them away, though this is still debated.
Source: Venus (Wikipedia) · Fact card

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