Earth's gravitational pull is slowing you down, but as your distance from Earth increases, that pull weakens. If you were initially travelling at less than the escape velocity then eventually Earth's pull would be enough to bring you to a stop and from then you on you would fall back to Earth. Venus is the second planet from the Sun and Earth's closest planetary neighbor. Even though Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. Its thick atmosphere is full of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and it has clouds of sulfuric acid.