Venus-Toxic Neighbor

Toxic Neighbor

Previous studies have suggested that the Earth’s sister planet, Venus, was once able to support life. But, recent findings have uncovered evidence that it was always a scalding and toxic planet, according to Science Alert.

A new study looked into the climate models of Venus and Earth in their early years to determine when – and whether – the former could sustain life.

The authors explained that water would have been present in the form of steam on both planets’ surfaces while they were cooling down more than four billion years ago.

The steam would eventually condense into clouds and produce rain. This could only happen, however, if clouds were to form to block solar radiation from the surface of Venus.

But the climate models suggested that on Venus, clouds could have been present only on the planet’s cooler night side. Meanwhile, Venus’ dayside was getting cooked by solar radiation, which also generated a powerful greenhouse effect on the night side.

As a result, vapor couldn’t condense, and – if it did – it wouldn’t have produced enough rain to fill up Venusian oceans.

The research team is still unclear how Earth and Venus ended up on different evolutionary paths but hopes that further research and future space probes to the planet might yield answers.

It isn’t possible to figure this out on our computers, says co-author David Ehrenreich: “The observations of the three future Venusian space missions will be essential to confirm – or refute – our work.”