How long is Venus's orbit?

Venus takes 224.7 days to go once round the Sun. It is travelling at 34.89 km/s at the moment — a speed that changes through the orbit, fastest at perihelion and slowest at aphelion.

What shape is Venus's orbit?

An ellipse with the Sun at one focus, not at the centre. Its eccentricity is 0.0067, derived here from the perihelion and aphelion distances rather than quoted: 0.718 AU at closest and 0.728 AU at furthest, a difference of 1,455,778 km.

Where is Venus in its orbit now?

0.726 AU from the Sun — 0.109 billion km — which is 77% of the way from its closest point to its furthest. It next reaches perihelion on 25 December 2026.

Venus

Venus's orbit

Once round the Sun every 224.7 days, on an ellipse drawn here from the ephemeris rather than from a formula.

Looking down on the plane of the ecliptic, traced from the ephemeris over one full orbit of 225 days. Earth’s orbit is the faint one, for scale. The Sun sits off the centre of the ellipse — that offset is the eccentricity, and it is why the two distances differ.

Orbital period: 224.7; days for one lap
Eccentricity: 0.0067; 0 would be a circle
Semi-major axis: 0.723; AU · the orbit's average radius
Speed now: 34.89; km/s, from the ephemeris

What is worth knowing about it

Venus has the most circular orbit in the solar system. Its distance from the Sun varies by barely one per cent, so unlike every other planet it has essentially no seasons driven by distance.

The shape of it

Venus does not travel a circle. It comes as close as 0.718 AU (0.107 billion km) and goes as far as 0.728 AU (0.109 billion km) — aphelion is 1.01 times further out than perihelion, a swing of 1,455,778 km. At 0.0067 its orbit is very nearly a circle — draw it to scale and the difference from one would be thinner than the line.

Because the Sun sits at a focus rather than the centre, Venus does not move at a constant speed either. It runs fastest when it is closest and slowest when it is furthest, sweeping equal areas in equal times — which is Kepler's second law, and is visible in the diagram above as the uneven spacing of a constant time step.

Where it is now

Today Venus is 0.726 AU from the Sun, 77% of the way from perihelion to aphelion, travelling at 34.89 km/s. It reaches perihelion on 25 December 2026 at 0.718 AU.

Common questions

How long is Venus's orbit?: Venus takes 224.7 days to go once round the Sun. It is travelling at 34.89 km/s at the moment — a speed that changes through the orbit, fastest at perihelion and slowest at aphelion.
What shape is Venus's orbit?: An ellipse with the Sun at one focus, not at the centre. Its eccentricity is 0.0067, derived here from the perihelion and aphelion distances rather than quoted: 0.718 AU at closest and 0.728 AU at furthest, a difference of 1,455,778 km.
Where is Venus in its orbit now?: 0.726 AU from the Sun — 0.109 billion km — which is 77% of the way from its closest point to its furthest. It next reaches perihelion on 25 December 2026.

Positions from VSOP87 via Astronomy Engine, accurate to within one arcminute. The orbit above is traced by sampling a full period rather than drawn from elements, so the tilt and the off-centre Sun are the real ones. See Venus’s distance from the Sun, Venus right now, or watch the whole system move in the live simulation.