Temperature of Venus
Written by Fraser Cain
In many ways, Venus is a twin to our own planet Earth. It's almost the same size and mass as the Earth. If you could walk on the surface of Venus, you would barely notice the slightly lower gravity. But there's one difference you would absolutely notice: the temperature on Venus is extremely hot.
How hot is Venus? Consider our own planet Earth. The average temperature across planet Earth is 14 °C; although it can get hotter than 50 °C in summer in the hottest deserts. That's nothing compared to Venus.
On Venus, the average temperature is 460 °C. That's also the maximum and the minimum. In other words, no matter where you go on Venus, the temperature is the same – night or day. The temperature at the poles is the same as at the equator.
One of the big reasons why the temperature is the same everywhere is that Venus has axial tilt. While the Earth is tilted 23 degrees compared to the Sun, Venus is only tilted 3 degrees.
The temperature does change with altitude; however. As you rise in altitude, the temperatures go down. In fact, there's a point in Venus above 50 km or so where the temperature and air pressure are roughly the same as we experience on Earth.
Venus got so hot because of its incredibly dense atmosphere made of almost entirely carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps energy coming from the Sun from escaping back into space.
Filed under: Astronomy
