Correction to: Nature Geoscience https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0157-x, published online 18 June 2018.

In the version of this Article originally published, a statement regarding past measurements of the length of day and rotation rate of Venus was potentially misleading. The original statement has now been replaced in the online versions of this Article, to acknowledge that neither Magellan nor Venus Express measured an instantaneous rotation rate. The original and corrected statements are shown below.

Original

Sixteen years apart, the Magellan and Venus Express missions measured a length of day (LOD) difference of 7 minutes14. This longterm trend can be partially explained by the intradiurnal change of LOD due to atmospheric motions.

Corrected

An estimate of the Venusian length of day (LOD) was obtained by averaging 500 days of radar surface images taken by the Magellan mission. Another estimate was also obtained by comparing the relative change of position of topographical features seen by Magellan and Venus Express 16 years apart, resulting in a difference of 7 minutes of LOD for these two timespans14. This difference can be partially explained by an intradiurnal change of LOD due to atmospheric motions, although systematic errors may also contribute.