Venus is Earth's twin in size, and its opposite in almost everything else. Fall through clouds of acid into the hottest place on any planet, then keep going.
For this trip you are indestructible. Nothing can hurt you. As you fall, we will tell you what a real body would be going through.
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90 km above the ground
Venus turns so slowly that it takes longer to spin once than to go all the way around the Sun.
And it spins backwards. On Venus, the Sun rises in the west.
A real body: Very thin air, and −100 °C. Below you, a world wrapped completely in cloud.
70 km above the ground
You reach the cloud tops. Up here the wind blows at about 360 km/h, carrying the clouds all the way around Venus in just four days.
Meanwhile the planet underneath barely turns at all.
A real body: A thirtieth of Earth's air, −43 °C, and a constant gale.
55 km above the ground
About 55 km up, the air pressure is half of Earth's and the temperature is like a warm summer day. It's the most Earth-like spot anywhere beyond our planet.
Scientists have sketched floating research stations up here. There's a catch: the clouds are made of sulfuric acid.
A real body: Half of Earth's air and 27 °C. You could almost take off your helmet, but there's no oxygen, and the acid would burn.
30 km above the ground
You drop out of the bottom of the clouds into hot, hazy, dim orange air.
Acid rain falls from the clouds above, but it boils away in the heat long before it reaches the ground.
A real body: Ten times Earth's air pressure and 222 °C, as hot as a baking oven.
0 km down
You land on a world of volcanoes and cracked lava plains, under a heavy orange sky.
This is the hottest surface of any planet, hotter even than Mercury, which is much closer to the Sun. A thick blanket of carbon dioxide traps the heat.
In 1982 the Soviet lander Venera 13 survived here for 127 minutes, long enough to send home the first colour photos of the surface.
A real body: 92 times Earth's air pressure, like being 900 metres under the sea, and 464 °C, hot enough to melt lead.
20 km down
Venus's surface is young: roughly the same few hundred million years old almost everywhere, as if the whole planet was paved over with lava.
It may still be happening. In 2023, scientists comparing old radar maps saw a volcanic vent change shape in just eight months.
A real body: About 5,000 times Earth's air pressure and around 700 °C.
500 km down
Inside, Venus is probably built much like Earth: hot rock that slowly churns.
But Venus has no moving plates to let its heat out. It may build up for ages and then escape in great bursts of volcanoes.
A real body: About 170,000 times Earth's air pressure and around 1,600 °C.
2,800 km down
Venus has an iron core about the size of Earth's, but no magnetic field at all.
Earth's field is stirred up as its core slowly freezes. Venus's core may never have started to freeze, so it stays still and silent.
A real body: Over a million times Earth's air pressure and thousands of degrees. Nobody knows whether this iron is liquid or solid.
6,052 km down
You're at the centre of Venus.
No one has ever recorded a quake here, so everything about the inside of our closest neighbour is an educated guess. It may be the least explored place you've fallen through yet.
A real body: Nearly three million times Earth's air pressure and several thousand degrees.
Through acid clouds and crushing heat, to the silent heart of Venus. You made it.
You would be crushed, cooked and corroded all at once. The ground is 464 °C, hot enough to melt lead, and the air pressure is 92 times Earth's, like being 900 m under the sea.
On the way down you'd fall through clouds of sulfuric acid. The longest any lander has lasted is 127 minutes: the Soviet Venera 13, in 1982.
Strangely, about 55 km up, the pressure and temperature are almost like Earth's. It's the most Earth-like place beyond our planet.
Not on the ground. The heat and pressure would kill you in moments. About 55 km up, though, the temperature and pressure are close to Earth's, and scientists have sketched floating stations there.
Its thick carbon dioxide air traps heat like a blanket, so the surface stays at about 464 °C day and night, even though Mercury is much closer to the Sun.
Yes. Soviet Venera landers reached the surface in the 1970s and 80s. Venera 13 survived 127 minutes in 1982 and sent back colour pictures.
Probably a lot like Earth: a rocky crust and mantle over an iron core about the size of Earth's. Unlike Earth, Venus has no magnetic field, possibly because its core never started to freeze.
