Did you know that Venus spins backwards?

The night sky has always been a spellbinding scenario for anyone interested in Stars and the Universe. Celestial bodies also played a pivotal role in navigation when man first started exploring the earth. Among the shining stars in the sky, Venus, the brightest planet in Solar system will be visible just after sunset or just before the dawn as a bright object.

Venus is a planet similar to our Earth in size but different in many ways. It has mountains, volcanoes and looks like a very active planet. Though Venus is not the closest to the Sun, it is one of the hottest planets, when compared with the other planets. Metals like lead are like puddles of melted liquid because of the heat Venus holds. 

The planet is an unusual one because it spins in the opposite direction of the Earth and most of other planets. Venus actually spins upside down and thus, while looking at the rotation of other planets we feel like it is rotating backwards. All the planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in anticlockwise direction when viewed from Earth's North Pole, but Venus rotates in clockwise direction. It is also the slowest rotation done by any planet.

It takes about 243 Earth days for Venus to spin just once and around 225 Earth days to go all the way round the sun. The fun fact is that a day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. On Earth the Sun rises and sets on each day, but on Venus, the Sun rises after every 117 Earth days. Which means that the sun rises only twice a year in Venus. As Venus rotates backwards, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.