It seems like a contradiction. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, so it would be natural to assume it is also the hottest.
It seems like a contradiction.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, so it would be natural to assume it is also the hottest.
In reality, that title belongs to Venus, where surface temperatures are hot enough to melt lead.
The difference isn't about distance from the Sun but about what happens after sunlight reaches a planet.
While Mercury has almost no atmosphere to trap heat, Venus is wrapped in an incredibly dense blanket of carbon dioxide that acts like a giant thermal trap.
Like all other planets with magnetic fields, Mercury traps harmful radiation in a belt-like shape. But only sometimes.
The hottest giant planets in the galaxy should, in theory, have the fastest winds.
It's hard to picture two more similar yet different worlds than Earth and Venus.
Mercury will appear farthest from the sun in its current evening apparition on June 15.
Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury hosts water ice at its poles. Now scientists may know how it got there.
Despite being the closest planet to the sun, Mercury has thick deposits of ice at its poles, and now we may understand the events…
