Mondo Knows Facts
Venus rotates backwards relative to most solar system planets
On Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east
Unlike most planets in our solar system that spin counterclockwise, Venus rotates clockwise on its axis in retrograde motion. Consequently, an observer standing on the surface of Venus would see the Sun rise in the west and set in the east every 117 Earth days.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: venus, retrograde, spin
Venus rotates backwards relative to most solar system planets: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- On Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a space fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.