Have you ever heard of Venus being called Earth’s sister planet? Well scientists believe that Venus could have had an abundance of water in the past just like Earth has today. Though some scientists feel that maybe Venus is a warning sign to us that Earth may someday end up like her.
“Venus’s atmosphere of carbon dioxide reaches nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit and a surface pressure 100 times that of Earth’s. It is considered a twin to our planet because of their similar sizes, masses, rocky compositions and close orbits.” The sulfuric acid clouds are what gives Venus the bright complexion (“Cassini”). Venus has about a million times more sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere than Earth. Scientists believe the sulfur dioxide came from hundreds of volcanoes on Venus (“Have”). In the higher levels of the clouds from East-West wind speeds reach 400km/h around the equatorial latitude and the lower clouds reach 230 km/h around the tropical latitudes. But from the North-South there is approximately no wind in the lower clouds and 35 km/h in the higher clouds around the tropical latitudes. The winds on Venus are faster than the actual planet’s rotation (“Venus Express”). Due to the wind the entire planet only takes four Earth days for the atmosphere to circulate. This makes it difficult for scientists to pinpoint where and how many active volcanoes there are on the planet that is erupting. The sulfur dioxide is destroyed when hit by sunlight and this shows scientists that there is something on Venus that keeps regenerating sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere (“Have”).
A new investigation of both Mars’s and Venus’s atmosphere has been launched by NASA. The Venus Spectral Rocket, known as VeSpR, launched just a few days ago on November 25, 2013. The study is suppose to determine the amount of UV light that is coming off of the planet. The UV light will help scientists to determine the “history of the planet’s water”. Scientists are still trying to figure out whether Venus had water on its surface or only in the higher levels of the atmosphere. “Venus today has a thick atmosphere that contains very little water, but we think the planet started out with an ocean’s work of water”, said John T. Clarke of Boston University, the mission’s principal investigator. The scientists are going to calculate the amount of hydrogen and deuterium that is in the atmosphere since both ions need oxygen to form water. The UV light coming from the sun separates the molecules where water evaporates and the hydrogen wafts into space. (“Sounding”).
Scientists cannot view Venus’s surface due to the sulfuric acid clouds. These clouds develop when volcanoes emit sulfur dioxide and water vapor that mix to cause sulfuric acid droplets. Scientists believe the sulfuric acid droplets could evaporate due to the sunlight and releasing sulfur dioxide gas into the atmosphere. This was found by Xi Zhang, California Institute of Technology, USA and colleagues from America. Also, Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize winner, believes that if we put large quantities of sulfur dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere it will help to “counteract the global warming” because of the greenhouse gases. He came to his hypothesis because of the Mount Pinatubo located in the Philippines erupted in 1991 that released sulfuric acid into the atmosphere like that of Venus’ clouds, and cooled Earth by 0.5 degrees Celsius by reflecting the “sun’s rays back into space”. But by the way Venus’s clouds evaporate the sulfuric acid scientists are figuring out how fast the droplets evaporate back into the sulfuric acid gas before they can actually experiment with Earth’s atmosphere (“Venus Holds”).
Dr. Emmanuel Marcq of the LATMOS laboratory in France suggests that “Venus was probably more humid and Earth-like in the distant past” because the water containing hydrogen is pulled out of the atmosphere by Venus’s gravity faster since it is two times higher in the atmosphere than the water with deuterium, a heavier water (“Venus Express”). Though the Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that the solar wind that the sun emits hits Venus’s upper atmosphere and transfers some of the particles off into space because Venus does not have a magnetic field. The magnetic field that Earth provides is what saves us from the solar wind from the Sun. The solar wind is where scientists believe that some of the water went from Venus (“Where”).
Do you think that some time far in the future Earth may someday end up like Venus? Will Paul Crutzen’s hypothesis work and how could scientists test his hypothesis? Andrew had showed us a picture of Earth during class that Cassini, a spacecraft equipped with high tech cameras, had taken of Saturn towards the sun. In the same picture is Venus that had also been spotted through Saturn’s rings.
Works Cited:
“Cassini Spies Bright Venus From Saturn Orbit.” ScienceDaily. 27 Nov. 2013 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130304125306.htm>.
“Have Venusian Volcanoes Been Caught in the Act?” ScienceDaily. 27 Nov. 2013 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121203081838.htm>.
“Sounding Rocket to Peek at Atmosphere of Venus.” ScienceDaily. 26 Nov. 2013 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131125172111.htm>.
“Venus Express Adds Evidence For Atmospheric Water Loss on Earth’s Twin.” ScienceDaily. 27 Nov. 2013 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009
“Venus Holds Warning for Earth.” ScienceDaily. 26 Nov. 2013 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101130122035.htm>.
“Where Did Venus’s Water Go?” ScienceDaily. 27 Nov. 2013 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081218094605.htm>.
Photo of Venus:
Photo of Solar Wind:
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