Question: How is Venus the hottest planet in the solar system?

Melissa Ladyman answered on 16 Jun 2016:

That’s a great question! Mercury is the closest to the sun so you would think it would be the hottest. But Mercury does not have an atmosphere so all of the heat can escape the planet really quickly. Venus on the other hand is surrounded by carbon dioxide, which is very good at trapping heat on the planet. It sort of works like a greenhouse- even on a cool day, the greenhouse will be hotter inside because once inside the heat is trapped. That means that Venus can often be hotter than Mercury.

Earth also has an atmosphere- it’s what makes it possible to live here. The atmosphere is made of lots of gasses like nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide and it stretches away from the planet getting thinner and thinner until it reaches space.