Venus: Earth's Scorching Twin

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is often called Earth's "sister planet" due to their similar size and mass. However, beneath its bright, cloudy appearance lies a hellish world with surface conditions unlike anywhere else in our solar system.

A Runaway Greenhouse

Venus has the hottest surface of any planet in the solar system, with temperatures reaching 900°F (475°C)—hot enough to melt lead. This extreme heat is caused by a runaway greenhouse effect: its thick atmosphere, composed primarily of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid, traps heat so effectively that Venus is hotter than Mercury, despite being farther from the Sun.

Retrograde Rotation

Venus has a unique characteristic—it rotates on its axis in the opposite direction to most planets, a phenomenon called retrograde rotation. Additionally, Venus rotates incredibly slowly, taking 243 Earth days to complete one rotation, which is longer than its orbital period of 225 Earth days. This means a day on Venus is longer than a year!

The Brightest Planet

Venus is the brightest natural object in Earth's night sky after the Moon. Its thick clouds reflect sunlight so effectively that it's often visible even during daylight hours, earning it the nicknames "Morning Star" and "Evening Star" depending on when it appears.

Exploration

Despite its hostile environment, Venus has been visited by numerous spacecraft, including the Soviet Venera program, which successfully landed probes on its surface in the 1970s and 1980s. More recently, missions like NASA's Magellan have mapped Venus's surface using radar.