Venus
Our twin with the temperature of an inferno
Summary
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is considered Earth's "twin": very similar in size and mass. But because of its thick CO₂ atmosphere, its surface reaches 462°C, making it the hottest planet in the Solar System.
In depth
Venus may have been born as Earth's twin, but it met a completely different fate. Its atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide, and its pressure is 92 times that at Earth's surface (equivalent to 900 m under the sea). A runaway greenhouse effect driven by dense CO₂ pushes the surface temperature to 462°C, hot enough to melt lead. Clouds of sulphuric acid swirl in the upper atmosphere and it rains constantly, but the rain never reaches the ground (it evaporates in mid-air). Venus has a feature that is rare among the planets: retrograde rotation, so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. And a Venus day (243 Earth days) is longer than a Venus year (225 Earth days). Scientists study Venus as a warning of how powerful a greenhouse effect can become.
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