Mid-Week Mini: A Day is Longer Than a Year on Venus
In this week’s Mid-Week Mini Episode, we talk about how on Venus, a day is longer than a year..
A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
That sounds like one of those riddles where the answer is going to make you roll your eyes, but it’s just the strange reality of how the planet works. Venus rotates on its axis extremely slowly. One full spin takes about 243 Earth days. That’s a “day” on Venus. But the planet’s orbit around the Sun takes only 225 Earth days. So if you’re standing on Venus, you’d complete an entire orbit around the Sun before the planet has even spun all the way around one time.
And it gets weirder. Not only is the day longer than the year, but Venus spins backwards compared to Earth. So if you could stand on the surface—which you can’t, because the temperature is over 850 degrees Fahrenheit and the pressure would crush you—you’d see the Sun rise in the west and set in the east.
Astronomers still don’t know for sure why Venus rotates so slowly and backwards. The best guess is that billions of years ago, it had a massive collision with another body that threw off its rotation. Whatever the reason, the planet’s strange spin makes it one of the more fascinating worlds in our solar system.
So the next time you’re having one of those long days that feels like it’ll never end, just remember—it could be worse. You could be on Venus.
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