Why is Venus so bright?

Venus appears as the second-brightest object in our night sky because it reflects an impressive 76% of sunlight through its thick clouds made of sulfuric acid droplets. These tiny droplets, suspended 30-43 miles above the planet's surface, create an extremely efficient light-scattering system that makes Venus about 100 times brighter than first-magnitude stars. The planet's brightness varies depending on its distance from Earth and the phases it shows, reaching peak brilliance when only a crescent is visible from our perspective.