how far away is venus

Venus is the closest planet to Earth and its distance varies depending on where both planets are in their orbits. At its closest approach, Venus is about 24 million miles (approximately 38 million kilometers) away from Earth. The distance can increase to as much as about 162 million miles (around 261 million kilometers) when the two planets are farthest apart. On average, Venus is roughly 25 million miles (40 million kilometers) from Earth during close approaches, with light taking about 12 minutes to travel that distance.