2023-06-23 22:02:00
A three-dimensional perspective view of the surface of Venus taken by NASA’s ‘Magellan’ Venus probe. Three craters are visible in the Lavinia Plain region of Venus. (Photo = NASA) *Resale and DB prohibited
[서울=뉴시스]Reporter Yoon Hyun-seong = Venus, the third brightest celestial body in our sky after the sun and moon, is the most Earth-like planet in the solar system. Although it is a rocky planet with a similar crustal composition, its diameter and mass are all similar to Earth, compared to Mars, which is expected to have life. Among the planets in the solar system, it is also the closest to Earth. However, unlike Earth, which is a blue planet where life lives, the environment of Venus is literally ‘inferno’. The average temperature reached 467 degrees Celsius, the highest among the planets in the solar system, and due to such an ultra-high temperature and ultra-high pressure environment, all the exploration equipment sent by mankind were destroyed without lasting a day. The reason why the two sibling planets, which had similar environments in the early days of the solar system’s formation, show such a stark difference is one of the top interests of the academic world. According to the CI of the planetary atmosphere group at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), a distinguished scholar of Venus research, Lee Yeon-joo, on the 24th, mankind had imagined that Venus would be a ‘paradise on earth’ like Earth’s subtropical climate, rather than an inferno until the middle of the 20th century. It was observed that the clouds on the surface of the planet reflected sunlight and shined beautifully, and it was because it was closer to the sun than the earth, so it would be hotter. It was in 1962 that NASA’s ‘Mariner 2’ probe obtained data that the Venusian atmosphere could be hot for the first time in 1962. Since then, the Soviet Union (currently Russia) has been actively exploring Venus until the 1980s, and the ‘Venera’ probe series succeeded in entering the atmosphere of Venus for the first time, landing on Venus, and taking pictures of the surface of Venus. Later, NASA also sent the ‘Pioneer Venus’ probe and the ‘Magellan’ probe to Venus, and realized that Venus is a completely different environment from Earth. ◆Venus’ water taken away by volcanic eruptions and solar winds… Hundreds of millions of years of greenhouse effect created the current environment, and during this exploration process, clues that water may have existed on Venus were captured. It was found that the ratio (D/H) of deuterium and normal hydrogen on Venus is 100 to 200 times that of Earth. This means that Venus lost a lot of light hydrogen, which led to speculation that water on Venus’ surface evaporated into space for some reason. Venus is expected to undergo a process of change similar to that of Earth for billions of years after its formation about 4.2 billion years ago. However, a strong hypothesis is that rapid volcanic activity caused a rapid increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, accelerating the greenhouse effect, resulting in a very hot climate different from that of Earth. In particular, the disappearance of liquid water on Venus due to this super-high temperature climate can be summarized in two contexts. One hypothesis is that the planet’s temperature soared as the magma turned into a rock without properly absorbing carbon dioxide, and the water disappeared. In the process of magma turning into rocks such as silicate, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is trapped in the earth’s crust, and the atmospheric concentration should be controlled, but it was not possible. Another hypothesis is that even after the magma was rocked, water remained to form the ocean, but then another rapid environmental change occurred and the liquid water was released into space in the form of water vapor. For example, there is an inference that super-large volcanic eruptions, incomparable to Earth, would have occurred repeatedly and removed the water. The image of Venus taken by NASA’s Magellan Venus probe (left) and an imagined image of Venus in the past, which is expected to have had an ocean hundreds of millions of years ago. (Photo=NASA) *Resale and DB prohibited Also, unlike the Earth, Venus has a very weak magnetic field and cannot block the solar wind properly, and due to this, it is argued that all light vapors would have been swept away and flown into outer space. It is analyzed that the volcanic eruption continued even after the water vapor disappeared, leaving only heavy sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As such, various hypotheses have been raised about the environmental change of Venus, but the most important cause is the ‘runaway greenhouse effect’, a kind of vicious cycle of greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases generated from volcanoes heat the atmosphere → water vaporization → water vapor condensation does not occur due to high temperature → the greenhouse effect of hot water vapor accelerates → evaporation of water continues → the high-temperature water vapor that reaches high altitudes escapes into space for hundreds of millions of years It seems that it has become an inferno without a drop of water as it is now. ◆With the era of new space, the exploration of Venus is also rapidly increasing… Will there be a clue to find an alien planet where life can live? Meanwhile, with the recent advent of the new space era, competition for deep space exploration beyond the moon and Mars is igniting all over the world. Along with the development of observation technology, the discovery of exoplanets is accelerating, and the number of exoplanets identified until last year exceeded 5,000. As interest in space grows, the exploration of Venus is gaining speed. This is because it is possible to increase the possibility of finding an exoplanet where life can live by analyzing the environment of Venus, which shows a starkly different environment despite its size and location similar to Earth. Of the 5,000 or so exoplanets discovered so far, only 4% are rocky planets similar in size to Earth. However, it is still difficult to determine whether it will be a habitable environment like Earth or an infernal planet like Venus. Academia expects to improve the ability to identify exoplanets where life can live through the analysis of Venus’ environment. NASA in the United States and ESA in Europe plan to launch several new probes to Venus, such as ‘Envision’, ‘Da Vinci’, and ‘Veritas’, around 2030. Korea also plans to launch a long-term Venus observation project called ‘CLOVE’, centered on IBS, and launch a micro-satellite from Earth’s orbit to observe Venus for the next 10 years or more from 2026 and embark on a joint exploration. ☞ Sympathy Press Newsis hsyhs@newsis.com <저작권자ⓒ 공감언론 뉴시스통신사. 무단전재-재배포 금지.>
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