Why Venus Is HOTTER Than Mercury

The closest planet to the Sun is not the hottest. Venus is.

Mercury sits just 36 million miles from the Sun and bakes at up to 430°C in daylight. Venus, nearly twice as far, is hotter still — around 465°C, day and night.

The difference is the air. Mercury has almost none, so its heat escapes the instant the Sun sets, and its night side plunges far below freezing. Venus is wrapped in a crushing blanket of carbon dioxide — an atmosphere ninety times heavier than Earth's. Sunlight slips in, heat can't get out, and a runaway greenhouse effect has turned the whole planet into an oven that never cools.

Venus is hot enough to melt lead across its entire surface — not in one scorched spot, but everywhere, all the time. The Sun's nearest neighbor is cooler than the planet behind it.

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