Hottest planet in the Solar System

What to remember

Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System: at the mean surface level, its atmosphere reaches 737 K, or 464 °C (867 °F).

The second planet from the Sun, Venus is similar to Earth in size and mass, yet it has no liquid water. Its atmosphere, made mostly of carbon dioxide, is far thicker and denser than that of any other rocky body in the Solar System, and a thick layer of sulfuric acid clouds wraps the whole planet. At ground level the pressure is 92 times greater than on Earth at sea level, which turns the lowest layer of the atmosphere into a supercritical fluid.

Venus also stands out for its rotation. It orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days but needs 243 Earth days to turn once on its axis, longer than any other planet in the Solar System. It spins in the opposite direction to the other planets, so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. It has no natural satellite.

Seen from Earth, it looks like a star-like point of light, brighter than any other natural point of light in the sky, as the "morning star" or the "evening star".