Sunrise over Venus. Artwork of the view from orbit of the Sun rising over the clouds covering the planet Venus. Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is a rocky world and is only slightly smaller than the Earth. Sulphuric acid cloud layers obscure the surface. Strong winds circle the planet at the cloud tops. The dense carbon dioxide atmosphere traps the Sun's heat, leading to surface temperatures of over 500 degrees Celsius, the hottest planetary surface in the solar system. In addition, the atmospheric pressure on the surface is 90 times that on Earth. The Sun rises every 117 Earth days, with 1.92 Venusian solar days in each Venusian year.