[ad_1]
The planet Venus is today one of the least hospitable planets in the solar system. The second planet of the Sun has an overwhelming atmosphere of carbon dioxide, 90 times thicker than Earth's temperature and surface temperatures reaching 462 ° C. But now, NASA has calculated that Venus may be an alien land for billions of years.
New computer models of NASA's history of climate in Venus show that up to about 700 million years ago, temperatures ranged from 20 ° C (68 ° F) to 50 ° C (122 ° F). ), fresh enough for liquid water on the surface.
NASA's Pioneer NASA mission discovered in the 1980s suggests that the planet once had a shallow ocean.
However, as it receives much more sun than the Earth, scientists believe that it quickly evaporated before life can establish itself.
With no water disappearing from the surface, CO2 levels rose in the atmosphere, triggering an uncontrolled greenhouse effect that created its current infernal conditions.
READ MORE: The universe could be 2 billion years younger than expected
The latest computer modeling by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science suggests that the ocean over Venus may have survived for three billion years.
And that does not just suggest that life could have once evolved on Venus.
It also opens new possibilities for places where extraterrestrials can exist outside our solar system.
Dr. Michael Way, principal investigator of the NASA study, said, "Our hypothesis is that Venus could have a stable climate for billions of years."
READ MORE: Hubble creates cosmic galaxy history book
"It is possible that the near-global resurfacing event is responsible for its transformation from a hell-like hot earth-like climate we see today.
"Our models show that there is a real possibility that Venus is habitable and radically different from the Venus we see today.
"This opens up all kinds of implications for the exoplanets present in what is called the" Venus Zone ", which may actually contain liquid water and temperate climates."
Shortly after its formation, about 4.2 billion years ago, Venus would have completed a period of rapid cooling and carbon dioxide would have prevailed in its atmosphere.
If Venus had evolved in a way similar to that of the Earth over the next 3 billion years, the carbon dioxide would have been sucked up by the rocks, which would have locked it into the surface.
READ MORE: Hubble spots a low galaxy in the "sea monster" constellation
About 715 million years ago, its atmosphere was dominated by nitrogen containing traces of carbon dioxide and methane – similar to those of the Earth.
And these conditions could have remained stable until today.
However, Dr. Way believes that an intense volcanic activity about 700 million years ago transformed Venus.
One theory is that large amounts of magma bubble up, releasing carbon dioxide from molten rocks into the atmosphere.
The magma solidified before reaching the surface, creating a barrier to the reabsorption of gas, causing rapid global warming.
[ad_2]
Source link