How far away is Venus right now?

41,609,547

kilometres · Venus's distance from Earth

About 108 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.
An airliner at cruising speed would take 5.2 years to cover it.

Right now Venus is too close to the Sun to see.

Right now Venus is about 41.6 million kilometres from Earth, and the gap changes every second. A radio message, moving at the speed of light, needs 2.3 minutes to cross it.

No planet comes closer to us. At its nearest, Venus is 38.2 million kilometres away; on the far side of the Sun, 261 million. The next close approach is on 1 June 2028.

Time until Venus's next close approach to Earth

579 d 06 h 59 m 19 s

Measured

Average surface temperature of Venus

464 °C

Measured, with error

Length of a solar day on Venus (sunrise to sunrise)

117 days

Measured

What is Venus?

Earth's twin, at first sight

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, the next world in from Earth. Like Earth, it is made of rock and metal, with mountains and volcanoes on its solid ground.

In size it is almost our double. Its width is 0.95 of Earth's, and its mass 0.81 of ours. That is why Venus is sometimes called Earth's twin.

But we never see that ground from here. Venus is wrapped in thick clouds of sulfuric acid that hide it completely. We see only their tops, lit by the Sun.

After the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest thing in our sky. Ancient watchers thought it was two objects, a morning star and an evening star. The Romans named it after their goddess of love and beauty. It is the only planet named after a female god.

12,104 kmEquatorial diameter of Venus

The next close approach

Why the distance keeps changing

Earth and Venus both circle the Sun, like runners on a track. Venus has the inside lane and the faster pace, so it gains on us. It laps Earth once every 1.6 years.

Each time it overtakes us, Venus passes between Earth and the Sun. That is when it comes closest, and astronomers call the line-up an inferior conjunction. Then Venus is lost in the Sun's glare, and turns its night side towards us.

Afterwards it swings out to the side of the Sun and shines in the evening or the morning sky. Months later it lies beyond the Sun, as far as 261 million kilometres away.

So Venus comes nearest of all the planets, yet spends long spells far off. Averaged over time, it is about 1.14 times the Earth–Sun distance away, a little farther than Mercury. The clock on this page counts down to the next close approach, on 1 June 2028.

579 d 06 h 59 m 19 sTime until Venus's next close approach to Earth

Right now

A hello that takes minutes

Radio waves are a kind of light, and nothing travels faster. Even so, a message to Venus takes time. At today's distance it needs 2.3 minutes to arrive.

When Venus passes between us and the Sun, the wait is shortest of any planet's: 2.1 minutes at the closest. That is less than the 499 seconds sunlight needs to reach us: at those times Venus is nearer to us than the Sun is. When Venus is beyond the Sun, the wait grows many times longer. A radar echo bounced off Venus makes the trip twice, there and back.

Radio did more than carry messages here. Light cannot get through the clouds, but radio waves can. NASA's Magellan spacecraft used radar to map the hidden surface, until its mission ended in 1994. It found a land of volcanoes and long mountain chains. The surface looks young, recently reshaped as planets go. Most of the places on those maps are named after women.

41,609,547 kmVenus's distance from Earth

Average temperature

The hottest planet

Venus is about 1.9 times as far from the Sun as Mercury. Yet it is the hottest planet of all. Its surface sits at about 464 °C, hot enough to melt lead. Earth's average is 15 °C.

The heat comes from its air. Venus's atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, and very thick. Sunlight gets in, but the heat cannot get out. From day to night, the temperature hardly changes.

That air also presses down hard. At the surface its weight is about 91 times the air pressure on Earth at sea level. NASA compares it to being more than 930 metres under water.

Between 1970 and 1982, eight Soviet Venera landers reached the ground and radioed back what they found. Two Soviet Vega landers followed in 1985. The longest-lived, Venera 13, kept working for just over two hours.

464 °CAverage surface temperature of Venus

Sunrise to sunrise

A day that runs backwards

Venus spins very slowly, and the wrong way round compared with Earth. So on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

A year on Venus, one lap round the Sun, lasts about 225 Earth days. Its day is stranger. One full turn takes 243 days. That is longer than its year: a single turn lasts about 1.1 Venus years.

But because Venus turns backwards as it travels, the Sun crosses its sky a little faster than the spin alone. From one sunrise to the next takes 117 days. A Venus year holds only about 1.9 of its own days.

Earth's tilt gives us summer and winter. Venus tilts by only three degrees, too little for seasons, NASA says. Under the clouds, every day is much like the last. And no moon lights its long nights: Venus is one of only two planets without one.