Is it true that a day on Venus is longer than its year?
Yes. Venus takes 243 Earth days to rotate once but only 225 to orbit the Sun, so its day outlasts its year.
It also spins the opposite way to most planets, so the Sun rises in the west there.
How hot does it get on the surface?
Around 465°C — hot enough to melt lead. The atmosphere holds so much heat that Venus stays hotter than Mercury, even though Mercury is far closer to the Sun.
Could anything survive there?
Not on the ground. The pressure is about ninety times ours and the clouds are sulfuric acid. The one place people still argue about is 50 km up, where the temperature and pressure are almost Earth-like.
Has anything landed on it?
The Soviet Venera probes did, in the 1970s and 80s. The longest survived about two hours before the heat got in — long enough to send back the only photographs taken from the surface.
Why is it so bright from Earth?
Its clouds reflect about three quarters of the light that hits them, and it comes closer to Earth than any other planet. Only the Sun and the Moon outshine it.
When is the next chance to see it?
It alternates between an evening and a morning star over about nineteen months. Look low in the west just after sunset, or low in the east just before dawn, and it is the steady light that does not twinkle.