Venus was once covered in water. Or was it? An analysis of our twin planet’s atmosphere suggests it could never have supported life.
While many scientists think Venus once had oceans of water, that may not be the case.Astronomers have long debated whether Venus , which is extremely hot and inhospitable to life today, once had liquid-water oceans on its surface.
According to University of Cambridge PhD student and study lead author Tereza Constantinou, Venus's atmosphere, which is fed by subterranean gas hissing out of volcanic eruptions, has very few water molecules inside it"This is consistent with Venus having had a long-lasting dry surface and never having been habitable."
Then, a runaway greenhouse effect heated the planet and boiled the oceans, but not before some of the water was locked away in magma and released into the atmosphere by volcanic activity. Therefore, he said, the evidence required to change this view would need to be compelling and he wasn't convinced by the latest findings.
However, because its history was thought to be wet and temperate, scientists use Venus as a template for what a habitable world in other solar systems might look like.
Habitable Hydrogen Volcano Atmosphere Exoplanets Water World
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