• Question: Why is the hottest planner not the closet to the sun ?

    Asked by Liv Becks to Ajay, Kate, Kuntal, Pip, Reka on 7 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Reka Nagy

      Reka Nagy answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is hotter than the closest one, Mercury, because of what is known as the greenhouse effect. Venus has an atmosphere, which means that sunlight, carrying heat and light, can enter the atmosphere and heat the planet, but the atmosphere will stop some of this heat from escaping and it will bounce right back to the surface of the planet. Mercury lacks an atmosphere, so this does not happen there – it gets really hot during the day (which is not the same length as a day is on Earth, by the way!), but this hot quickly dissipates during the night as there is no atmosphere to keep it on the planet.

Comments