Eli5: Venus is the second planet from The Sun, Mercury is first. Why is Venus still the hotttest planet in the Solar System?
In: Planetary Science
All things being equal, Mercury ought to be hotter. But all things aren’t equal.
The main difference is that Venus has a dense atmosphere (much denser than Earth’s) made mostly of carbon dioxide. You’ve probably heard of the greenhouse effect in relation to global warming on Earth; well on Venus it’s that much worse.
Mercury on the other hand has almost no atmosphere to speak of. At any given time, the side facing the sun is extremely hot while the side facing away is extremely cold. It gets a lot of energy from the sun, perhaps more than Venus, but it has no way to hold onto that heat so on average it’s not as hot.
So basically Mercury is like being naked in the desert, but Venus is like wearing a snowsuit in a slightly cooler desert.
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