Planets by Average Temperature
About This Dataset
Planets by Average TemperatureThe most important anomaly in this data sits at the top: Venus (464°C) is far hotter than Mercury (167°C) despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun - the result of a runaway greenhouse effect under its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, a cautionary tale for climate science. Mercury's modest average also hides brutal extremes, swinging from 430°C by day to -180°C at night because it has no atmosphere to hold heat. From Earth outward, temperature falls off steadily with distance, dropping roughly 30-60 degrees per planet out to Neptune's -200°C. Earth's 15°C average is no accident of position alone: our modest greenhouse effect lifts it about 33 degrees above what our distance from the Sun would otherwise deliver, landing us precisely in the liquid-water zone.
Key Findings
Auto-computed highlights from this dataset
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
Related Charts
More statistics on similar topics