It might surprise you to learn that the hottest planet in our solar system isn’t Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. It’s actually Venus, which, at times, is almost twice as far from the sun as Mercury. The reason that Venus is so hot is because its incredibly thick atmosphere is made almost entirely out of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, acts as a greenhouse gas the same way it does on Earth: trapping heat on the planet and preventing it from escaping back into space. The difference is that Venus has more than 2,000 times as much CO2 as we do on Earth! This keeps the planet at a toasty 870 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the hottest planet in our solar system, despite its distance from the sun.

Venus is the brightest planet in the sky, making it the brightest object besides the sun and the moon. The name Venus stems from the Romans, who named it after the goddess of love and beauty. Because it orbits so much closer to the sun, it always appears in the sun's vicinity from our perspective, and is best seen either just after sunset in the spring or just before sunrise in the fall.

Venus has one of the most confusing calendars in our solar system. The time it takes to rotate on its axis, or its day, is 243 Earth days! That’s one long day! Not only that, the time it takes to orbit around the sun, or its year, is only 225 Earth days, making its year shorter than its day! Much longer than Earth’s 24 hour day! You also would see the sun set in the east and rise in the west because Venus rotates in a clockwise (or retrograde) direction, opposite from most of our planets.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth. But its orbit can take it anywhere between 24 million miles and around 162 million miles away! Venus is also one of the easiest things to spot in the sky because it is often the first or last object visible when it is too light for the rest of the stars or planets. During May, all you have to do is go outside just after sunset and look for the brightest-looking object in the west, and you have found Venus!

If you’ve never seen it before, this is your invitation! Come see our solar system’s hottest planet