Venus, the second planet from the Sun, has one of the strangest rotations in our Solar System. While we normally think of a day as being shorter than a year, Venus completely flips that idea. Venus takes approximately 225 Earth days to complete one orbit around the Sun . This is what we call a Venusian year. But Venus rotates extremely slowly on its axis. It takes about 243 Earth days to complete one rotation relative to the distant stars . In other words, its sidereal day is longer than its year . How Is That Possible? Think of Earth. Our planet rotates once roughly every 24 hours, while it takes about 365 days to orbit the Sun. Venus is very different. Its rotation is incredibly slow, taking more than 243 Earth days. Yet it completes its journey around the Sun in only about 225 days. There is an even stranger twist: Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most planets . This is called retrograde rotation . Interestingly, because Venus rotates backward, a solar day on its sur...
The World is stranger than you think.