Every world in the Solar System runs its own weather system. Pick a planet below to see its current surface temperature and open a full weather profile.
Current surface temperatures, updated live. Select any planet to open its full weather station.
Temperatures are simulated from each world's day–night cycle and cross-referenced with NASA, ESA, and peer-reviewed planetary science data.
Select two planets to compare their temperatures and atmospheres side by side.
Weather is not unique to Earth. Across the Solar System, the interaction of solar radiation, internal planetary heat, atmospheric chemistry, and rotational speed produces meteorological phenomena that dwarf terrestrial storms. Four primary engines govern extraterrestrial weather systems:
Solar energy drops with the square of distance. Mercury and Venus receive blistering flux that bakes rocky crusts and drives ferocious photochemistry, whereas the ice giants Neptune and Uranus receive less than 0.1% of the sunlight hitting Earth, forcing atmospheric chemistry into deep cryogenic regimes.
Unlike terrestrial weather which is primarily driven by sunlight, gas giants like Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune radiate significantly more heat from their gravitational contraction and radioactive cores than they absorb from the Sun. This primordial internal energy drives colossal thermal plumes and supersonic jet streams from within.
Jupiter completes a full axial rotation in just 9.9 hours despite being 11 times wider than Earth. This extreme rotational velocity produces massive Coriolis forces that shear convection cells into narrow, alternating east-west jet bands and locks cyclonic vortexes like the Great Red Spot in place for centuries.
Atmospheric mass spans twelve orders of magnitude across the Solar System. While Mercury exists in an ultra-tenuous exosphere of transient solar-wind ions, Venus's dense 92-bar carbon dioxide atmosphere functions as a supercritical fluid ocean that traps 99% of outgoing infrared thermal radiation.
A comparative overview of verified meteorological superlatives recorded by NASA, ESA, and international planetary science missions:
| Record Category | Champion World | Observed Metric | Primary Atmospheric Mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hottest Surface | Venus | +464°C (+867°F) | 96.5% CO₂ atmosphere under 92 bar pressure creating runaway greenhouse trapping. |
| Coldest Atmosphere | Uranus | -224°C (-371°F) | Lacks significant internal heat engine; methane upper cloud decks radiate heat into space. |
| Coldest Cloud Top | Neptune | -200°C (-328°F) | Orbiting at 4.5 billion km from the Sun with deep cryogenic methane and ammonia decks. |
| Fastest Jet Streams | Neptune | 2,100 km/h (1,300 mph) | Extremely low surface friction and deep interior convection driving supersonic jet streams. |
| Longest Lasting Storm | Jupiter | 350+ Years (Great Red Spot) | High-pressure anticyclone confined between opposing jet streams with zero landmass friction. |
| Wildest Diurnal Swing | Mercury | 610°C Swing (+430°C to -180°C) | Zero atmospheric blanket to insulate daytime heat; vacuum radiates energy immediately at night. |
| Highest Surface Pressure | Venus | 92 atm (9.3 MPa) | 480-million-teraton carbon dioxide atmosphere equivalent to being 900 meters underwater on Earth. |
| Lowest Surface Pressure | Mars | 0.006 atm (6.1 hPa) | Stripped over 4 billion years by solar wind sputtering following the collapse of its magnetic dynamo. |
On Earth, weather revolves around the triple point of water (ice, liquid water, vapor). On other worlds, vastly different chemical compounds transition between liquid, solid, and gas phases to produce alien forms of precipitation:
Thousands of kilometers beneath the cloud tops of Neptune and Uranus, temperatures exceed 2,000°C and pressures surpass 100,000 atmospheres. High-pressure physics experiments indicate that methane (CH₄) molecules crack apart, and carbon atoms crystallize into solid diamond hail that sinks toward their cores.
Venusian clouds between 48 and 70 kilometers altitude consist of concentrated sulfuric acid droplets (H₂SO₄). While these clouds produce persistent rain, the intense heat of the lower atmosphere (464°C) causes raindrops to evaporate into gas miles before reaching the scorching basalt surface—a phenomenon known as virga.
Saturn's moon Titan is the only other world in the Solar System with open rivers, lakes, and rainfall. At -179°C, water ice behaves like rock, while methane and ethane take the place of water, evaporating into orange smoggy clouds, condensing into torrential hydrocarbon rainstorms, and filling polar seas like Kraken Mare.
During the brutal winters at Mars's polar caps, temperatures plummet below -125°C, causing atmospheric carbon dioxide to freeze directly out of the thin air into dry ice snowflakes. In summer, ground heating triggers convective vortices that whip up towering dust devils kilometers into the sky.
Gathering meteorological telemetry across hundreds of millions of kilometers requires an array of remote sensors, robotic weather stations, and space-based spectrometers:
Robotic landers like NASA's Perseverance rover carry dedicated weather instruments (such as the MEDA sensor suite), logging real-time atmospheric pressure, wind speeds, air temperature, relative humidity, and dust optical density every second on Mars.
When an orbiter passes behind a planet as seen from Earth, its radio signals refract through atmospheric layers. Precise frequency shifts allow scientists to reconstruct vertical temperature, density, and pressure profiles with millimeter-wave accuracy.
By observing infrared emissions with instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble, astrophysicists isolate the molecular signatures of methane, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and phosphine, mapping cloud decks and thermal maps across the outer planets.
Explore detailed, scientifically verified answers to the most common questions regarding alien weather, atmospheric survival, and planetary climates across our solar system.