The Hottest Planet in the Solar System
We’ve all heard of the greenhouse affect—the process where a planet’s atmosphere allows heat in but blocks some of that heat from escaping back into space. It’s a major reason why Earth’s climate is so stable while many other inner planets suffer wild temperature swings. It is also the reason why the second closest planet to the sun is, by far, the warmest planet in the solar system. Learn more about Venus’s extreme heat and its cause in this month’s column!
Image credit: NASA’s Pioneer Venus Orbiter image of Venus’s upper-atmosphere clouds as seen in the ultraviolet, 1979.