Venus Is the Hottest Planet
What might be Venus’s most iconic feature—its extreme heat—is also one scientists still don’t quite understand. Venus is even hotter than Mercury, which orbits closer to the Sun. The planet’s average temperature is over 850 degrees Fahrenheit. The longstanding theory is that Venus got caught in a runaway greenhouse effect: the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere continued to trap heat on the planet, roasting it. Venus’s surface temperatures can melt lead and have killed off space probes within a few hours. That’s one reason why the upcoming DAVINCI+ mission will be so useful—the NASA probe will take stock of the planet’s atmospheric chemistry, which should help scientists understand what made it so scorching.
