For billions of years our planet didn't even exist, and after Earth finally came on the scene, it was still a lifeless hellscape for over a half billion years. Now, new findings from NASA scientists suggest Venus -- one of the least desirable destinations in today's solar system -- may have been habitable for billions of years in the past.
The Venus we know is just plain awful. Its thick, carbon dioxide atmosphere topped with clouds of sulfuric acid has a crushing pressure over 90 times more than that of Earth. Did I mention that the place has an average temperature of 462 degrees Celsius (863 degrees Fahrenheit)?
The atmosphere of Venus is so thick, it was once presumed that it had something to do with the planet's very slow rotation rate -- a day on Venus is equal to 117 Earth days. However, newer research has shown that a planet with a thinner atmosphere like ours could also have a very slow rotation rate.
According to NASA, this also means that ancient Venus could have had the same rotation period it has now, but with a thin atmosphere like Earth's.
No comments:
Post a Comment