The Longest Day
A day on Venus is longer than its year. The planet makes a complete trip around our Sun - a year - in 225 Earth days. But thanks to its sluggish rotation (once every 243 days), a single day - 24 hours here on our planet - lasts 117 Earth days on Venus.

Too Hot to Handle
Venus - not Mercury - is the hottest planet in our solar system. Even though Mercury is closer to the sun, Venus' toxic clouds trap the Sun's heat. That runaway 'greenhouse effect' makes Venus' surface sizzle at about 457°C (854°F). That's hot enough to melt lead.

Backspin
If an action hero wanted to ride off into the sunset on Venus, she'd have to head east instead of west. Venus rotates in the opposite direction of the other planets - a retrograde rotation - so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

Night Light
Venus is the brightest planet in Earth's night sky. Only the Moon - which is not a planet - is brighter. Venus outshines the other planets because it is closer and its thick clouds are excellent for reflecting the Sun's light.

Girl Power
Venus's beauty in the night sky inspired ancient astronomers to name it for the goddess of love and beauty. Almost all the surface features of Venus are named for amazing Earth women. Only one spot - Maxwell Montes - is named for the man whose work in physics made surface observations of Venus possible.

Secret Surface
Scientists weren't about to let dense clouds, extreme heat and intense pressure stop them from studying the surface of Venus. In 1990, they used the Magellan spacecraft's powerful radar to peer through the clouds and map most of the surface of the planet.