When people think about our planetary neighbor, the first thing to come to their heads is Mars. And why should it not? Mars is potentially inhabitable, and there has been some evidence of water on its surface.
Sadly, Venus is like the forgotten middle child. Not the closest to the sun, and not the planet closest to us, Venus is the second closest to the sun and similar to stereotypical middle children, it has been throwing some tantrums.
While it is similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus spins very slowly in the opposite direction, resulting in a day lasting 5,832 hours, or 243 days on Earth (a single day on Venus is actually longer than a year, which is 225 Earth days), in addition to the Sun rising in the West and setting in the East. Its atmosphere is coated with a thick layer of clouds blowing at hurricane force, sending them completely around the planet every five days. Due to the thick and acidic cloud layer, there is an intense greenhouse effect, making Venus the hottest planet in our solar system by far. It can melt lead (about 900 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface), and a glimpse beneath the clouds shows volcanoes and deformed mountains littering the ground.
Earth’s technology does not last very long on Earth’s surface, which means that a human being would probably perish even faster. However, there has been speculation of life existing in one of Venus’ top cloud layers, as the temperatures are more similar to Earth’s in those areas.
But why does this matter? Why is Venus the topic of this week’s post?
The short answer is comparative planetology – the comparison of planets in order to better understand one or both.
Venus, back in the 1920’s was thought of as a sister-planet to Earth. Astronomers and scientists believed it to be a lush planet, ripe for life. However, as time went on, we discovered more and more about Venus. Its atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide, with the primary component in the clouds being sulfuric acid. Atmospheric lightning continuously flashes through the clouds, which extend up to 100 kilometers above the planet’s surface. The pressure on the surface is the equivalent of feeling like you were 1 mile deep underwater, and I have already addressed the temperature component.
We now know, as just expressed, that Venus is alien to us. The complete opposite of what we assumed it to be, the planet is what many would imagine hell to be like. It would reek of sulfur, with lava channels, massive craters (many meteorites burn up in the atmosphere, so the only craters that could exist/do exist are anywhere from 0.9 to 1.2 miles in diameter), volcanism, and frequent tectonic plate activity. Nothing from Earth could survive there.
Which is why we study it. By understanding why anything on Earth would die on Venus, particularly regarding the atmosphere, allows us to prevent the same result for Earth. Ancient Venus is thought to have had an ocean, possibly more qualities of life we recognize here, but it descended into chaos. Especially studying the runaway greenhouse effect, in addition to the role of aerosols in the atmosphere, and may end up helping us prevent Earth from becoming another Venus.