Why is Venus the hottest planet in the solar system?
Venus's Better Coat
Why is Venus the hottest planet in the solar system?
Quick — which planet is hottest? If you guessed Mercury, the one closest to the Sun, that's a great guess. It's also wrong. The crown goes to the second planet out: Venus. So how does the runner-up in the Sun race somehow win the heat race? Let's go find out.
Here's the thing about being close to the Sun. Mercury soaks up loads of sunlight, sure. But Mercury is also almost naked — it has barely any atmosphere, just a whisper of gas. So all that heat just leaks right back out into space.
