How Far Is Venus From The Sun?
QUICK ANSWER
Venus orbits an average of 67 million miles (108 million km) from the Sun, placing it as the second planet from the Sun and about 72 percent of Earth's distance. Unlike most planets, Venus has a nearly perfectly circular orbit, so its distance from the Sun barely changes throughout its year.
Venus sits between Mercury and Earth in our solar system, orbiting the Sun at a remarkably steady distance. Unlike the more elliptical orbits of its neighbors, Venus traces an almost perfect circle, making its distance from the Sun one of the most consistent of any planet.
What is Venus's average distance from the Sun?
Venus orbits an average of 67 million miles (108 million km) from the Sun, or about 0.72 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is the average distance from Earth to the Sun. According to NASA, this places Venus comfortably between Mercury (at 0.39 AU) and Earth (at 1.0 AU). Venus completes one full orbit of the Sun every 225 Earth days, faster than Earth but slower than Mercury.
Does Venus's distance from the Sun change?
Barely. Venus has the most circular orbit of any planet in our solar system, with an eccentricity of just 0.007 (a perfect circle would be 0). For comparison, Earth's eccentricity is about 0.017 and Mercury's is 0.21. Venus's distance from the Sun varies by only about 1 million miles between its closest and farthest points, which is a tiny variation in cosmic terms. The planet essentially traces the same path year after year.
How far is Venus from Earth?
It varies significantly. When Venus and Earth are on the same side of the Sun, they can be as close as about 25 million miles apart, the closest any planet ever gets to Earth. When they're on opposite sides of the Sun, the distance stretches to around 160 million miles. The average is about 75 million miles, which still makes Venus the planet that is, on average, closest to Earth most of the time.
Why is Venus so much hotter than Mercury despite being farther from the Sun?
Atmospheric heating. Mercury sits closer to the Sun and receives more direct solar energy, but with no atmosphere to retain heat, it cools quickly each night. Venus's thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide creates a runaway greenhouse effect that traps solar heat and circulates it around the planet, raising surface temperatures to around 900°F. Distance from the Sun matters less than what a planet does with the sunlight it receives.
Venus orbits the Sun at a steady 67 million miles, with the most circular orbit of any planet. Distance from the Sun isn't the main driver of Venus's extreme conditions; the atmosphere is. Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, but the real heat amplifier is what its atmosphere does with the sunlight it gets.
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