Venus Spins Backwards and Takes 243 Days to Rotate Once

Venus rotates so slowly that a single day on the planet lasts longer than its year. The planet completes one full orbit around the sun in 225 Earth days, but it takes 243 Earth days for Venus to spin once on its axis. This means Venus experiences fewer days than years, a phenomenon unique among planets in our solar system. Even stranger, Venus rotates backwards compared to most planets. While Earth and most others spin counterclockwise when viewed from above the North Pole, Venus spins clockwise. Scientists believe a massive collision early in Venus's formation likely knocked the planet sideways and reversed its rotation. The slow rotation creates another oddity: the sun rises in the west and sets in the east on Venus. If you could somehow stand on the surface, you would see the sun move backwards across the sky. The planet's thick atmosphere also traps heat so effectively that surface temperatures reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt lead. This combination of extreme heat, crushing atmospheric pressure, and backwards rotation makes Venus one of the most hostile places in our solar system.