Venus spins extremely slowly. How many Earth days does it take Venus to rotate once on its axis?
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Answer
About 243 Earth days
Venus rotates backwards compared with most planets, and one spin takes longer than its whole trip around the Sun, which lasts about 225 Earth days.
How to estimate it
No simple chain leads to this number. It was measured by bouncing radar off the surface, because thick clouds hide the ground. You can only bracket it: most planets spin in hours, Mercury has been slowed to 59 days, and Venus takes 225 days to orbit the Sun. A guess of a few hundred days for an almost stalled planet is reasonable. The measured value is 243 Earth days.
Source: NASA
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