Venus Trivia Quiz

Answer: hottest

Out of all of the planets in the Solar System, Venus is the hottest. This is despite its not being the closest planet to the sun! Its surface has an average temperature of 464 °C (867 °F). Dense clouds trap the heat and prevent it from escaping the surface; Venus' atmosphere is about 96% carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas that traps heat. To put this into perspective, Earth's atmosphere is about 0.04% carbon dioxide.

Answer: Kelvin

The Kelvin scale is used to measure extreme temperatures, and 737 K is roughly equivalent to 464 °C (867 °F). It is actually hot enough to melt lead. This is, in part, due to the extremely high surface pressure on Venus, roughly 92 times higher than on Earth, which prevents heat from escaping. In effect, Venus has the largest greenhouse effect of all the planets in the Solar System.

Answer: 0.91

Venus actually has a surface gravity that is relatively similar to Earth's. 0.91 means that it isn't quite as strong as Earth's, but if it weren't quite so hot on Venus, we would actually find it not too difficult to walk on Venus' surface! Although the surface pressure is another issue.

Answer: 243 days

Because Venus spins slower than Earth, it takes it much longer to complete a day. Although it only takes 225 days to orbit the sun, it still spins slower than that. On Venus, every day is about 8 Earth months, while every year is about 7.5 Earth months!

Answer: Magellan

The Magellan Venus mission reached Venus in 1990, and it made the first map of the entire Venus surface and gravity field. In 1994, it touched down on the surface of the planet. The first intentional probe crash, the Magellan probe gathered information on the atmosphere and surface conditions of Venus before it burnt.

Answer: it spins backwards

Venus spins backwards relative to the other planets. This is called retrograde rotation. Because of this, Venus' days work in reverse to Earth's: the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, opposite to on Earth. Venus is the only planet in the Solar System to move with retrograde rotation.

Answer: sulfuric acid droplets

Although sulfuric acid does not make up the entirety of Venus' clouds, it does comprise a large portion of them. Sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid are the main ingredients, and these heavy clouds assist in creating the high temperatures and greenhouse effect on Venus. It has been discovered that these clouds are capable of producing lightning!

Answer: False

Venus' orbit is actually the most circular of all the planets! It orbits the sun in an almost perfect circle. It also barely tilts on its axis, meaning that it doesn't experience any seasons because it remains almost consistently far away from the sun.

Answer: 90

The surface pressure of Venus' atmosphere is incredible! The high pressure contributes to the high temperatures on the planet by creating the greenhouse effect that keeps the temperatures high. Despite Venus' gravity, which is almost equal to Earth's, its surface pressure is enormous.

If a human stood on the surface of Venus, this strong of a surface pressure would press them flat, and death would be instantaneous.

Answer: radio astronomy from earth

Radio waves transmitted from antennas on Earth's surface were the first to penetrate Venus' clouds. Because Venus' clouds are so dense, it had previously been speculated what would be found when they could finally be seen through. The images made by radio astronomy had no color, but revealed density, roughness, and slope. Later radio waves in the 1960s were made by probes orbiting the planet, and produced similar images.