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HomeCAST — California Science TestScienceVenus and Mars › Venus goes around the Sun in 225 Earth days and …

Venus goes around the Sun in 225 Earth days and turns once in 243. What follows from those two figures?

AIts year outlasts its own day
BIt keeps one face to the Sun
CIts day outlasts its own year
DIt has no seasons of any kind
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. Its day outlasts its own year
1. A year is one trip around the Sun, which takes Venus 225 Earth days. 2. A day in the sense of one spin takes Venus 243 Earth days. 3. 243 is the larger of the two numbers. 4. So one spin of Venus lasts longer than one of its trips around the Sun. 5. That makes the Venusian day longer than the Venusian year. 6. The reversed option simply swaps the two numbers and gets the comparison backwards. 7. Keeping one face to the Sun would need the spin and the orbit to match, and 243 does not equal 225. 8. The time for the Sun to return to the same place in the sky works out to 117 Earth days. _Source: OpenStax Astronomy (CC BY 4.0), section 10.1 The Nearest Planets: An Overview_
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