Space field note
A day slower than a year
The Planet With the Longest Day
On Venus, a single day lasts longer than a whole year.
Let's look closer
How can one day be longer than one whole trip around the sun?
enus spins so slowly on its axis that it takes about two hundred forty-three Earth days just to turn all the way around once, making it the slowest-spinning planet in our entire solar system. Meanwhile, Venus zips all the way around the sun in only about two hundred twenty-five Earth days, faster than it manages to complete a single spin. That means one Venus day, measured from sunrise to the next sunrise, is actually longer than one whole Venus year, one of the strangest quirks found anywhere among the planets.
Look for this
Explorer clue
Spot Venus shining as a bright, steady point of light near the horizon just after sunset or before sunrise; it's often the brightest thing in that part of the sky.
Your turn to wonder
Curiosity question
If one of your days could last longer than a whole year, what would you finally have time to finish?
Keep wandering
