Question 4 Venus's mean surface temperature is actually hotter than Mercury's mid-afternoon temperature, despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun. The difference arises because Venus has many more layers in its atmosphere than Mercury. These extra layers actually contribute to the ability for the atmosphere to trap heat.In lesson 5 we talk about a perfect single layer atmosphere and get two energy balance equations that we use to find the surface temperature of Earth. What would be the temperature of Earth if we added an extra perfect (i.e. with emissivity equal to 1) layer, so we had two in total. With two layers there are now three energy balance equations. Find them, and solve for Earth's temperature. Layer 1 Atmosphere absorbs infrared Does your temperature agree with the 2 glass Layer 2 layer Greenhouse PhET? Layer 3 Challenge question: Find out how many Sunlight [visible and near-infrared] .etc. layers Earth would need to have the same surface temperature as Mercury. This is not Layer N trivial, and should only be attempted for you own curiosity. VENUS' SURFACE