Flower

📖 In short

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the closest planet to Earth. It's called “Earth's twin” because they're nearly the same size. It's the brightest thing in the sky after the Sun and the Moon, so we see it as a very bright star early in the morning or after sunset.

🤩 Did you know?

Venus is about 12100 kilometers across, a little smaller than Earth.
Venus spins once every 243 Earth days.
At its closest, Venus is about 41 million kilometers from Earth.
Four spacecraft reached Venus in December 1978.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 The hottest planet

Although Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system! Its thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide traps heat like a heavy blanket, hot enough to melt lead.

🔍 Acid clouds

Venus is covered in thick yellow clouds of sulfuric acid, so we can't see its surface with an ordinary telescope. Scientists have mapped its surface using radar.

💡 A day longer than a year!

Venus spins very, very slowly, so its day is longer than its year! And it spins the opposite way to most planets, so the Sun rises in the west there.

🎯 Morning and evening star

People call Venus “the morning star” when it appears before sunrise, and “the evening star” when it appears after sunset, even though it's a planet, not a star.