Venus. Artwork of a crater in the Aphrodite Terra highland region of Venus. Craters on Venus can be due to volcanic activity or impacts of meteorites. Most are due to volcanic activity as most meteors burn up in the planet's atmosphere which is 90 times as dense as Earth's. Venus has the hottest planetary surface in the solar system, with temperatures of nearly 500 degrees Celsius. This is due to its carbon dioxide atmosphere that traps the Sun's heat. Layers of sulphuric acid clouds cover the planet. The surface was mapped with radar by the Magellan space probes. The gravity is only slightly less than that on Earth.