Venus's atmosphere

Real Climate has an interesting post on Venus's atmosphere, highlighting results from ESA's Venus Express spacecraft. How long does a day on Venus last? The sidereal day is 243 Earth days long (longer than Venus's year of 225 Earth days), but the solar day is 117 Earth days. Confused? Go read the post, as it has one of the clearest explanations of the different types of day that I can remember reading.


The image is of Venus Express's launch in 2005 from Baikonur on a a Russian Soyuz-Fregat.