As a twin of the planet Earth, scientists have been working hard to find life-sustaining clues from Venus. For example, Venus used to have a mild climate, its surface was covered by oceans, and the clouds had the opportunity to breed microorganisms. However, the latest research shows that Venus may not be able to support the ocean from birth to death because it is too hot and will never be cooled enough to allow water to condense into liquid.
In terms of size, mass, density, and composition, Venus and the Earth are like twins. They are both rocky planets, with a little water and atmosphere. After a closer look, you will find that the former environment is like hell, life cannot survive, the atmosphere is full of carbon dioxide, and the sky It is full of thick sulfuric acid clouds, the surface temperature is as high as 462℃, and the surface pressure is 100 times that of the earth. In contrast, the earth’s environment is like a heaven and breeds all kinds of creatures.
But maybe Venus, like Mars, has an extraordinary past. Previous studies have shown that Venus may have had a livable mild climate and a vast liquid ocean. In order to answer these key questions, NASA and ESA have decided to send three detectors to Venus in the next 10 years: VERITAS, DAVINCI+ and EnVision.
Before the probe set off, a team from the University of Geneva and the Swiss National Research Center tried to simulate whether Venus ever had an ocean. However, this complex 3D atmospheric model (similar to the model used by researchers in simulating the Earth’s climate change) showed that Venus I haven’t been able to cool enough to form an ocean in my life.
The destiny of Venus and the earth are very different
Four billion years ago, both the earth and Venus were covered by hot magma, but the sun was about 25% dimmer than it is now, so the earth was cooled from a molten state enough to condense water and form the ocean that now covers 70% of the surface. But apparently, Venus, the second closest to the sun, did not cool down due to this. So the researchers explored whether the cloud cover of Venus’s back to the sun could help cool the temperature, but found that the clouds not only did not reflect sunlight, but contributed to the greenhouse effect, trapping more heat in it. The dense atmosphere of Venus keeps the temperature high.
In this case, water can only be distributed in the atmosphere in the form of water vapor, and Venus has never been cooled enough to rain and form rivers, lakes and oceans.
Just the difference in distance from the sun will cause the three neighbors of Venus, Earth, and Mars to have completely different landforms, showing that the evolution of rocky planets in the solar system is quite diverse. What’s more interesting is that if the sun were a little brighter that year, the earth would probably follow the destiny of Venus.
Of course, model conclusions based on theory are not the final answer. Observations from three future Venus space missions will help confirm or refute these studies. The new paper was published in the journal Nature.
(The source of the first image: Pixabay)
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