Why is Venus the hottest planet
Mercury is closer to the Sun than Venus. However, its surface temperature is lower than that of its neighbor. How to explain this difference?
On the surface of Venus, it is about 465 °C. This is higher than that of Mercury, where surface temperatures can reach 430 °C during the day.
The difference in temperature between these two planets may seem surprising, as Mercury’s orbit is closer to the Sun than Venus. So why is it less hot there than its neighbor?
Mercury’s orbit is located at an average distance of 58 million kilometers from the Sun.
This average distance to Venus is 108 million kilometers. “When we are interested in the difference in mean temperatures on Venus and Mercury, : we study the same phenomenon on many planets.
This tells us that we don’t. One can assume that the farther a planet is from the Sun, the lower its average temperature.
This is a very strict rule that does not reflect reality,” said Numerama, a doctor of astrophysics and at the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP). Researcher Lee Gritton explains.
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