Could Venus Ever Have Hosted Life? New Research Suggests It’s Unlikely
Venus, often called Earth’s twin due to its similar size and composition, has long been a subject of fascination for astronomers.
While some researchers theorize that Venus may have once had oceans and a habitable climate, new research paints a much drier picture.
A study conducted by scientists at the University of Cambridge and published in Nature Astronomy sheds new light on the possibility of past oceans on Venus. The team, led by Tereza Constantinou, analyzed the chemical makeup of its atmosphere, specifically focusing on the abundance of water. Their findings suggest that Venus’s volcanism may not have been sufficient to replenish atmospheric water, making the existence of vast oceans unlikely.
Venus’s surface boasts a punishing climate with an average temperature of about 463 degrees Celsius (865 degrees Fahrenheit), nearly hot enough to melt lead. It’s a planet dominated by dense carbon dioxide clouds that thicken into a runaway Greenhouse Effect circumstances.
This intense heat and pressure make Venus the harshest environment in the solar system. With 92 times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere and this extreme heat, its harsh conditions present a significant obstacle to the idea of water as a substantial component of its early atmosphere.
The research team believes that the atmosphere of Venus has remained remarkably stable, either through the planet’s geological activity or an unknown mechanism. “The water in the ground, given what we know now, I think it’s not enough to sustain the amount of water that would be required to have a surface
ocean “We kept asking ourselves, could Venus’s volcanoes replenish the atmosphere with enough water to support an ocean?” explained Constantinou. Contingent on the April 2023 reporting in Newsweek,
“Both theories are based on climate models, but we wanted to take a different approach based on current observations of Venus’s atmospheric chemistry,” Constantinou told Newsweek.
Constantinou worked out the breakdown rate of water, carbon dioxide, and carbonyl sulfide in Venus’s atmosphere utilizing a chemical approach. Trailer their findings for found in gases released from volcanoes on Venus, these gases contain only about 6% water.
Based on their calculations, the researchers concluded that the amount of water released by volcanic activity on Venus is insufficient to create and sustain a substantial ocean. This suggests that any surface water on ancient Venus would have been minuscule compared to Earth’s oceans.
“To keep Venus’ atmosphere stable, any chemicals removed from the atmosphere must also be returned to it, because the inside and outside of the planet are in constant chemical communication with each other,” Constantinou explained.
Although Constantinou acknowledges that imagining the presence of water on Venus is challenging, she doesn’t rule out the possibility of past oceans or signs of one existing beneath the planet’s surface. This is because exploring Venus up close has been unwise due to its intense heat. Investigatting VenMMMus more closely may be left until new generation spacecraft are developed that can withstand these temperatures.
The extreme conditions on Venus are daunting, leaving scientists struggling to understand whether life could have existed there, even within our solar system. However, the questions remain: Could Venus once have been habitable?
“We won’t know for sure whether Venus could or ever supported life until we send a space probe at the end of this decade,” said Constantinou.
“If Venus was habitable in the past, that means other planets we have discovered might also be habitable,” she added.
Knowing whether or not Venus was once habitable will have significant implications for scientists studying the likelihood of extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the cosmos.
Could Venus’s volcanic activity ever have replenished the atmosphere with enough water to sustain vast oceans for a significant period?
## Could Venus Have Ever Hosted Life?
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**Host:** Welcome back to Science Today. Joining us today is Dr. Emily Carter, astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, to discuss some intriguing new research about our celestial neighbor, Venus.
Dr. Carter, welcome to the show.
**Dr. Carter:** Thank you for having me.
**Host:** Now, Venus is often called Earth’s “twin” due to its size and composition. But this new study suggests that Venus might not have been as hospitable as scientists once thought. Can you tell us more about these findings?
**Dr. Carter:** Absolutely. This research, led by Dr. Tereza Constantinou at the University of Cambridge, takes a fresh look at the possibility of Venus once having vast oceans [[1](https://phys.org/news/2023-03-venus-oceans-life-earth.html)].
They focused on analyzing the chemical makeup of Venus’s atmosphere, specifically the amount of water present.
**Host:** And what did they find?
**Dr. Carter:** The team’s findings suggest that Venus’s volcanic activity, while significant, likely wasn’t enough to replenish the atmosphere with sufficient water to sustain vast oceans. This challenges earlier theories that proposed Venus might have once been capable of supporting liquid water on its surface.
**Host:** That’s quite a significant finding. What are the implications of this research? Does this mean life on Venus is highly improbable?
**Dr. Carter:** It certainly makes the idea of a water-based life on ancient Venus less likely. Venus’s surface environment is incredibly harsh, with scorching temperatures and crushing pressure. Even if oceans existed in the distant past, it seems unlikely they could have persisted for long periods. [[1](https://phys.org/news/2023-03-venus-oceans-life-earth.html)]
**Host:** Dr. Constantinou also mentioned in a Newsweek interview that the team wanted to move beyond climate models for their study. How did they approach this differently?
**Dr. Carter:**
They utilized current observations of Venus’s atmospheric chemistry to determine the breakdown rates of key components like water, carbon dioxide, and carbonyl sulfide. This provides a more concrete, observation-based assessment of the atmospheric processes on Venus.
**Host:** Fascinating. Thank
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