Cosmic Scale
Venus
Planet · 108 million km from the Sun
How big is Venus?
Venus is about 12,100 km across.
See Venus in 3D, at true scale
Venus is almost Earth's twin in size, and nothing like it in every other way. A crushing atmosphere of carbon dioxide traps heat so effectively that the surface is hotter than Mercury's, and clouds of sulfuric acid hide it from view.
At a glance
| Diameter | 12,100 km |
|---|---|
| Mass | 4.87 × 10²⁴ kg |
| Diameter compared with Earth | 0.950 × Earth |
| Year | 225 days |
| Day | 243 days, backwards |
| Surface | 465 °C, 92 atmospheres |
| Clouds | Sulfuric acid |
Good to know
- Its day is longer than its year, and it spins the opposite way to almost everything else.
- The pressure at the surface matches being 900 m underwater on Earth; the longest a lander has survived is two hours.
- It is the brightest object in our sky after the Sun and Moon, which is why it is called the morning or evening star.
- Next smaller: TRAPPIST-1e · 11,720 km
- Next larger: Earth · 12,740 km