How does Venus stay hotter than Mercury even though it is farther from the Sun?

Venus receives less sunlight than Mercury, but its atmosphere is about 96% carbon dioxide and extremely thick, creating a powerful greenhouse effect. Sunlight reaches the surface, but the heat cannot escape efficiently, so the planet traps energy like a planet-sized oven. Venus also has sulfuric-acid clouds and crushing surface pressure, about 92 times Earth’s at sea level. Soviet Venera landers in the 1970s and 1980s were the first spacecraft to survive briefly on the surface and measure these conditions directly.