APOD: Brighter Than Mars (2010 Aug 27)

[neufer]

Venus is also bigger than Mars, so if Mars and Venus were the same distance from the Earth, Venus would still be brighter. The closest Venus gets to Earth in orbit is about 23 million miles and Mars about 50 million miles.

You also have to factor in that Venus is closer to the Sun, and it has a much higher albedo.

Venus receives about 4.5x more light than Mars, and
it also reflects about 4.5 times more light than Mars.

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Albedo       Mars    Venus
--------------------------------------
geometric    0.17    0.67
Bond         0.25    0.90