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Facts
A short Venus desk
Figures below are the sentences used on this site, each tied to a NASA page checked on 15 November 2026.
- Place
- Venus is the second planet from the Sun, and Earth’s closest planetary neighbour. [NASA Science]
- Heat
- It is the hottest planet in our solar system — hotter, NASA Science notes, even than Mercury. [NASA Science]
- Fact-sheet temperature
- The same fact sheet gives the average surface temperature as 737 K (464 °C). [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Fact-sheet pressure
- The NASA fact sheet gives the surface pressure as 92 bars. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Air
- Near the surface, by volume, the atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide (CO₂) and 3.5% nitrogen (N₂). [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Year
- Venus orbits the Sun at a semimajor axis of 108.210 million km, with a sidereal orbit period of 224.701 Earth days. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Sidereal day
- The sidereal rotation period is −5,832.6 hours, 243.690 times as long as Earth’s, and the rotation is retrograde. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Solar day
- The length of a solar day on Venus, on the fact sheet, is 2,802.0 hours, or 116.750 Earth days. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Size
- The equatorial radius is 6,051.8 km, about 0.949 times Earth’s. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Mass
- Venus has a mass of 4.8673 × 10²⁴ kg, about 0.815 times the mass of Earth. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Gravity
- Mean surface gravity is 8.87 m/s², about 0.903 times Earth’s. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Moons and rings
- The fact sheet lists no natural satellites and no planetary ring system. [NASA Fact Sheet]
- Magnetic field
- Venus does not have its own internally generated magnetic field. It has a weak induced magnetic field, created by the interaction of the Sun’s magnetic field with the planet’s outer atmosphere. [NASA Science]
- Highest mountain
- One mountain reaches 36,000 feet (11 kilometres), higher than Mt. Everest. [NASA Science]
- Magellan coverage
- A second cycle ended on 15 January 1992, raising coverage to 96%, and a third cycle, ending 13 September 1992, finished coverage at 98%. [NASA Science]