PlanetSolar system
Venus
Earth’s near-twin in size, but a world of crushing pressure, sulfuric-acid clouds, and a surface hot enough to melt lead.
- Planet type
- Terrestrial
- Mean radius
- 6,051.8 km
- Distance from the Sun
- 0.723 AU · 108.2 million km
- Day length
- 243 Earth days, retrograde
- Orbital period
- 225 Earth days
- Surface temperature
- About 465 °C
- Surface pressure
- About 92 times Earth’s
- Moons
- None
A runaway greenhouse
Venus is almost the same size as Earth, but its atmosphere is about 96% carbon dioxide. A thick layer of sulfuric-acid clouds reflects much of the sunlight, while the greenhouse effect traps heat at the surface. The result is a mean surface temperature of about 465 °C — hotter than Mercury, despite Venus being farther from the Sun.
Venus also rotates backwards, so slowly that one rotation takes about 243 Earth days, longer than its 225-day orbit. Its atmosphere super-rotates, circling the planet in only a few days.
Volcanoes and a young surface
Radar maps show a surface dominated by volcanic plains, shield volcanoes, and tectonic structures. Impacts are relatively sparse, suggesting that much of Venus was resurfaced within the last few hundred million years. Whether Venus is volcanically active today is still an open and intensely studied question.
Recent work has identified young lava flows, possible active vent regions, and signs of ongoing tectonic deformation. Future missions will test those interpretations directly.
A radar view of Venus
NASA/JPL · Magellan
The next missions
NASA’s VERITAS and DAVINCI missions and ESA’s EnVision orbiter are being prepared to study Venus from orbit and through its atmosphere. Together they aim to map the surface at higher resolution, measure its composition, and understand how Venus diverged from Earth.
- Is Venus volcanically active now?
- How much water did Venus once have, and where did it go?
- How does the super-rotating atmosphere work?
- Could the cloud layer host any habitable niche?
Recent publications
| Year | Paper | Journal | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Challenges to detecting present-day volcanism on Venus | Nature Astronomy | DOI |
| 2025 | Evolution of Plume Volcanism at Atla Regio, Venus | JGR Planets | DOI |
| 2025 | Assessing the evidence for active volcanism on Venus | Geochemistry | DOI |
| 2025 | Is OSSO a Significant Contributor to the Unknown UV Absorber in Venus’ Atmosphere? | Geophysical Research Letters | DOI |
| 2022 | Noble Gases and Stable Isotopes Track the Origin and Early Evolution of the Venus Atmosphere | Space Science Reviews | DOI |
Compiled 20 October 2026. Links resolve to the publisher DOI record.