Venus is Hot! Trivia Quiz

Answer: 860° F

Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It has the hottest surface temperature of all the terrestrial planets. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, but is, on average, several degrees cooler than Venus. Since Mercury has a very thin atmosphere, the night side of Mercury can get extremely cold. Temperatures on Venus' surface can exceed 860° F (460° C) no matter the time or season due to its thick atmosphere.

Answer: CO2

The reason that Venus is able to retain all of its heat is due to the fact that its atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide (CO2). The carbon dioxide creates a greenhouse effect on Venus which allows the planet to trap the heat it receives from the Sun. Venus is often seen as a worst case scenario by environmentalists, who seek to prevent Earth's climate from ending up like that of Venus.

Answer: Earth

Venus is considered to be the Earth's sister since the two planets are very close in size to one another and have a similar composition. Venus has a diameter of 7,520 miles (12,100 km) while the Earth is slightly larger with a diameter of 7,916 miles (12,739 km).

Many scientists speculate as to what caused Venus to develop so much differently than the Earth. Some scientists speculate that Venus may have had liquid water and possibly even microbial life at some point in its early history.

Answer: Venera 7

Maria Sharapova is a tennis player from Russia (formerly the Soviet Union). During the Space Race, the Russians sent several Venera probes out to study the planet Venus. Venera 1 was launched on February 12, 1961 and Venera 2 launched on November 12, 1965, but they both failed. Venera 3 was the first to make a successful fly-by of Venus. Venera 4-6 successfully made it to Venus, but they were not designed to survive the landing. Venera 7 launched August 17, 1970 and became the first spacecraft to successfully land on another planet.

The probe transmitted data from the surface for 53 minutes before eventually succumbing to Venus' harsh environment.

Answer: Magellan

The Magellan spacecraft was launched on May 4, 1989 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. It was sent by NASA to study the planet Venus. Magellan had special instruments onboard that allowed it to see through Venus' thick clouds and map the surface of the planet from a distance.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is located in Pasadena, California, became responsible for monitoring the spacecraft during its mission. The Magellan spacecraft entered Venusian orbit on August 10, 1990 and remained operational until October 13, 1994, when it was sent on a suicidal dive onto the Venusian surface.

Answer: 65

Venus orbits the Sun once every 224.7 days while the Earth orbits the Sun once every 365.25 days. Therefore, if Venus Williams was 40 years old on the Earth, she would be 65 years old if she lived on Venus. If you wanted to feel younger rather than older, then you'd have to go to Mars or beyond. To see how old you would be on Venus, just multiply 1.63 by your current age.

Answer: Maxwell

Maxwell Montes is the tallest mountain range on the planet Venus. It was discovered by scientists in 1967 using the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. It is located in a large highland region of the planet known as Ishtar Terra. Skadi Mons, the tallest peak of Maxwell Montes, stands at a height of approximately 35,100 feet (10,700 m) above the planet's surface. For comparison, Mount Everest on Earth stands at approximately 29,000 ft (8,840 m).

Answer: Maat Mons

Maat Mons is the tallest volcano, as well as the second tallest mountain on the planet Venus. It stands at a height of more than 26,000 ft (8,000 m) above the surface. Scientists believe that, like Earth, Venus was at one time geologically active with volcanoes operating similarly to those found on the Earth.

At the time of writing, it is unknown if the planet is still geologically active today. Perhaps one day, with better space exploration technology, mankind will be able to discover more of what Venus' clouds hide.

Answer: clockwise

The planet Venus is known to have a retrograde rotation. While most of the regular planets rotate around their axes counter-clockwise, Venus rotates on its axis clockwise. The axial tilt of Venus is listed as being 177° from the orbital plane. For comparison, the Earth's axial tilt is 23.5°, Jupiter's is 3.13° and Uranus (another oddity) orbits on its side with an axial tilt of 97.8°.

Answer: True

Venus has the slowest rotation rate in the Solar System. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to turn only once on it axis. This means that a day on Venus ends up being longer than its year. In 2019, the Australian Open began on January 14 and the U.S. Open concluded on September 8, with the French Open and Wimbledon tournaments held in between.

It took 238 days to complete all four tournaments, which means they were all played within the span of one single Venusian day.