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Venus Longest sidereal day of any planet -- 243 Earth days. It is the only planet with a sidereal day longer than its year (224.68 Earth days). Since Venus rotates backwards, the Venus solar day is shortened to 116.8 Earth days and makes the Venus year equal to 1.93 Venus solar days. Greatest axial tilt -- 177.36°. A tilt of 180° is like a half turn. Or put another way it is like turning a ball upside down. It makes the spin go in the opposite direction, or rotate backwards. Brightest planet as seen from the Earth at -4.5 magnitude. It is brightest planet due to three factors: it is the closest planet to us at closest approach; it has a relatively high albedo of 0.65 (very reflective) and is practically the biggest planet other than our own Earth with a surface we can land a probe on. In fact Venus' albedo is the highest of the nine planets. Smallest temperature range of any planet, about a few degrees Kelvin (or Celsius), from high noon on the equator to deep winter at the poles. Hottest planet of the solar system -- 730K (457°C). Highest atmospheric pressure of any surface planet. A surface pressure of 92 atmospheres can make walking very difficult (assuming you can manage not to fry in the heat). On Earth, 92 atmospheres is equivalent to being 920 meters (~3000 feet) underwater. Divers rarely go much below 150 meters (~500 feet) underwater, equivalent to 15 atmospheres of pressure. At such pressure the low winds of Venus (1 to 3 km/h) can overwhelm you with its strong current. In addition the high pressure makes anything at the surface heat up very quickly. Forward to Earth |