planet
Venus
Turns backwards, and so slowly that a single rotation outlasts its year. Ninety atmospheres of carbon dioxide hold the surface hot enough to melt lead, top to bottom, pole to pole, day and night alike.
Position
Computed on . For a continuously updating figure, open the live simulation.
When to look
Venus never strays far from the Sun, so it is only visible near dawn or dusk. It is best placed at greatest elongation, when its angular separation from the Sun peaks.
| Date (UTC) | Event | Separation | Distance from Earth |
|---|---|---|---|
| greatest morning elongation | 47.0° | 0.67 AU | |
| greatest evening elongation | 46.1° | 0.71 AU | |
| greatest morning elongation | 45.8° | 0.71 AU | |
| greatest evening elongation | 47.0° | 0.67 AU |
About Venus
Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon, which is why it collects more misidentification reports than every other planet combined. The runaway greenhouse that holds its surface at 464 °C is uniform: there is essentially no difference between the day side, the night side, the equator and the poles. Its retrograde rotation means that, on the surface, the Sun would rise in the west.
Physical data
- Diameter
- 12,104 km
- Mass
- 0.815 earths
- Surface gravity
- 8.87 m/s2
- Rotation
- 243.0 d retrograde
- Year
- 224.7 d
- Axial tilt
- 177.4 deg
- Mean temperature
- 464 C
- Moons
- none
Positions from VSOP87, accurate to within one arcminute. Physical constants are published values and are not computed here.