♀ Inner Solar System
Venus
Earth's twin in size. A nightmare in every other way.
Venus is Earth's twin in size and a nightmare in every other way. Beneath its pale, featureless clouds lies a surface hot enough to melt lead, crushed under an atmosphere 90 times heavier than our own. It rains sulphuric acid. It rotates backwards. A day on Venus lasts longer than its year. Scientists once thought it might harbour life. They were very wrong.
"It rains sulphuric acid. It rotates backwards."
Key Data
Distance from Sun
Surface Temperature (avg)
Atmospheric Pressure
Day Length
Moons
Orbital Speed
Diameter
Surface Gravity
One Remarkable Thing
Venus spins so slowly — and in the wrong direction — that the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. A single Venusian day outlasts its entire year.
Scale Relative to Earth
Venus and Earth are near-identical in size — Venus's diameter is 12,104 km versus Earth's 12,742 km. The similarities end there.