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Why is Venus hotter than Mercury even though Mercury is closer to the Sun?

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Venus
Venus Venus photographed in ultraviolet light by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter (Pioneer 12) spacecraft, February 26, 1979. Although Venus's cloud cover is nearly featureless in visible light, ultraviolet imaging reveals distinctive structure and pattern, including global-scale V-shaped bands that open toward the west (left). Added color in the image emulates Venus's yellow-white appearance to the eye.

Venus is hotter than Mercury because of its massive, dense atmosphere, which triggers an intense greenhouse effect that traps heat at the surface.4

While Mercury is closer to the Sun, it lacks a significant atmosphere to retain heat, causing its surface temperatures to fluctuate drastically between its hot days and cold nights. In contrast, Venus is shrouded in a thick layer of carbon dioxide and clouds of sulfuric acid.1234

Although these clouds reflect much of the incoming sunlight, the solar energy that does reach the surface is absorbed and reradiated as infrared radiation. On Earth, this radiation would largely escape back into space, but on Venus, the dense atmosphere traps this energy, raising the surface temperature to approximately 464 °C (867 °F)—hot enough to melt lead.45