Nature Astronomy: There Were Never Conditions For Emergence Of Life On Venus

On the planet of Venus, there was never a life like earthly. This conclusion was reached by astronomers from the University of Cambridge, Zme Science reports.

The results of a study by Venus’s volcanic activity and atmosphere showed that it is barren, unsuitable for life and “reminiscent of hell” a planet that never had a characteristics like earthly.

British astronomers reproduced the process of forming the atmosphere of Venus and came to the conclusion that the bowels of the planet and volcanic gases thrown out by them contain an unusually small amount of water.

Calculations made it allowed planetologists to lean towards the hypothesis that Venus began to dry out and was actually lifeless from the first moments of its existence.

Studies have shown that the emissions of volcanoes on Venus contain unexpectedly small amounts of water – it accounts for less than 6 percent of the total mass of such emissions. This suggests that the bowels of the planet are “dry”, which distinguishes it from the ground, where the emissions of volcanoes are almost completely consist of water vapor.

Some scientists suggest that during the period of their formation about 4.6 billion years ago, Venus had similar characteristics similar to the ground, small -water oceans were located on its surface, there was a moderate climate. However, the subsequent mass eruptions of volcanoes gave rise to a powerful greenhouse effect, which evaporated all the water from its surface and turned Venus into a “hell” planet.

Other scientists suggest that the early Venus was too hot and dry so that the water could condensate.

– the results can shed light on the studies of detected exoplanets

The leading author of the study, graduate student of the Cambridge Astronomical Institute Teresa Konstantin and her team also support the hypothesis that Venus was originally molten planet, probably surrounded by a thick atmosphere of steam, and eventually intensive solar radiation destroyed hydrogen, which made the venere dry and unsuitable for life.

Konstantin said that the planet closest to the ground, Venus is important for science about exoplanets. “If Venus was inhabited in the past, this means that other (similar) planets that we have already found can also be inhabited. But if Venus has never been suitable for life, this makes” venere -like “planets in other places less likely Candidates to be suitable for living places, ”the scientist explained.

Studies have shown that most rocky exoplanets located in the “inhabited zone” of stars have characteristics similar to Venus.

The history of the origin of such planets is similar to the history of Venus, which suggests that they have much less chance of applying for the title of planets with the conditions suitable for life, as previously thought. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Venus is called the evil twin of the earth. The temperature on this planet reaches 460 degrees Celsius, the pressure is 92 times higher than the earth, and the atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid.