Not the Earth, but our neighbor became the first planet on which life was born
The best beaches in the solar system
It is generally accepted that on Venus, the second planet from the Sun, shrouded in a dense layer of clouds, now it is as it was on Earth billions of years ago. Like, our neighbor is still ahead. In the distant, distant future, it will cool down, acquire vegetation and animals. And in which case, pretty much prettier, he will shelter humanity. If our home planet gets spoiled for some reason.
However, it seems that the opposite has happened: the best times for Venus have already passed. This planet died irrevocably - it was cooked in the literal sense of the word, turning from a once tropical paradise into a living hell. Now on Venus it was almost 450 degrees Celsius, the monstrous pressure - a hundred times higher than that of the earth, stuffiness - the atmosphere is almost 95 percent carbon dioxide. Sulfuric acid rains from the sky.
The fact that Venus was fit for life was recently announced by NASA scientists from the Nasa's Goddard Instituto Core Space Studies (GISS) Kit New York. They made this conclusion based on computer simulations.
Venus was once like Earth
Computer modeling is now successfully used everywhere - including to predict the coming climate change on Earth. Models are created on the basis of ideas about the dynamics of processes in the atmosphere and its current state. They are "launched" and at the output they receive a "picture" of how our planet will look, for example, in a billion years.
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Scientists are capable of the inverse problem - that is, "calculating" what the Earth was like in the distant past. And if there is enough information about any other planet, then a similar trick can be done with it.
NASA experts used data on Venus collected by numerous spacecraft that have visited there over several decades. They saturated the computer model with them and started it, in fact, in reverse. This kind of time machine also demonstrated: 2 billion years ago, conditions on Venus were even more favorable for the emergence of life than on Earth. And it is not at all excluded that it was there that it was first born.
“Despite the fact that Venus is close to the Sun, it has never been particularly sunny,” says one of the study participants, Dr. Michael Way. - The planet rotates slowly, making one revolution in more than a hundred Earth days. The duration of daylight hours on the Venusian day is almost two of our months. The surface exposed to the Sun heats up, the evaporated moisture forms clouds. And frequent tropical showers. And the air temperature does not rise much. Very comfortable. Almost like in Thailand.
Paradise islands of Venus washed by a warm ocean
Time passed and heaven turned to hell
NASA specialists, by the way, were by no means the first to write down Venus as Earth's untimely deceased sister. The most, that neither is his own sister. A few years ago, researchers from the European Space Agency (ESA) assured that the beaches of Venus were the best in the solar system. They were washed by a warm salty ocean, and the sun was warming as now in the tropical regions of the Earth.
The Europeans built their conclusions on the basis of the data collected by the Venus Express probe, which has been in the orbit of Venus for several years. He found traces of "heavy" water. There is such a thing on Earth. In a certain proportion to ordinary water. Knowing it - this proportion, the researchers determined the volume of all Venusian water. And they figured that in the "resort" era, it could cover the entire planet with a layer one hundred meters thick.
From their time machine, NASA specialists saw that the ocean on Venus was deeper than 100 meters in places. And it did not occupy the entire surface, but slightly more than 10 percent of it.
Granite is abundant on Venus. And it is obtained only by the interaction of saline water solutions at great depths with basalt. And this - albeit indirect, but one more proof that once there was water on Venus. By the way, and visually now the surface of Venus resembles the bottom of the ocean, over which three continents rise.
The ocean boiled away, and water vapor was swept into space.
The resort was destroyed by volcanoes
Earth and Venus are really similar. They are almost twins in size, weight and average density. Therefore, they could develop in a similar way. Until today. But something happened that turned Venus into hell.
Venus, Earth and Mars
NASA believes that the Earth could have been in place of Venus. But she was just lucky - the processes taking place on our planet were not so catastrophic as to destroy her. Several times on Earth there have been mass extinctions - either from the fall of a giant asteroid, then as a result of the simultaneous eruption of several volcanoes, or as a result of some mysterious reasons. But time passed, and the planet "came to its senses." And Venus did not come.
According to the most popular theory today, our neighbor was destroyed by volcanoes, which emitted an incredibly large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And what happened on Venus is what ecologists are scaring us on Earth with: the greenhouse effect began to develop irreversibly. As a result, the surface was catastrophically heated. And if any life existed, it perished.
It seems that global warming on Earth does exist. And if so, then our planet is not immune from the fate of the neighboring one. After all, the total amount of carbon dioxide and others - greenhouse - on Venus and on Earth is approximately the same. Only here they are still connected in water and in sedimentary rocks. But if the average temperature continues to rise, then carbon dioxide will begin to escape into the atmosphere. And this will heat her even more. And a process will begin that the Earth may no longer survive.
Panorama taken by the Venera-13 spacecraft in 1982
The panorama made by "Venus-13" was developed by the American computer graphics specialist Don P. Mitchell.
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Hell can be made into heaven again
Venus, of course, will not be reborn itself. But it can be helped, experts say, and made fit for life again. To do this, the planet's atmosphere must be saturated with genetically modified cyanobacteria, which will feed on carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen. The process is long, but if you start it tomorrow, then by the time life on Earth becomes completely unbearable, Venus will have something to breathe. The greenhouse effect will decrease, it will get colder, and the sun will start peeking out from behind the clouds.
We'll have to get some water somewhere, which is almost completely gone on Venus. Scientists propose to deliver it with ice asteroids - to bomb them some time after the delivery of bacteria.
By the way, even a few decades ago, when it was not known what the temperature on Venus was, even serious scientists believed that it was, at least, not hot there. And the assumption that there may be life on Venus did not bother anyone. This was reflected in the Soviet sci-fi film "Planet of Storms", released in 1962. The Soviet-American expedition, having landed on a neighboring planet, met there oceans, lush vegetation, and bizarre animals like dinosaurs. The filmmakers even hinted that there is intelligent life on Venus. True, in the form of aliens.
Still from the movie "Planet of Storms": Venus is not hot at all
And animals on the "Planet of Storms" are found
See you in 2117
On June 5, 2012, Venus was seen from Earth as passing across the disk of the Sun. This so-called transit will only be repeated in 105 years.
Venus against the background of the Sun: shot from Earth
Venus against the background of the Sun: a snapshot from space
Vladimir LAGOVSKY