To date, much of the search for life on other planets in the solar system has focused on Mars. This is not surprising, because the red planet is made of minerals, like the Earth, in addition, Mars has an atmosphere, and scientists are almost sure that this planet once had water. But perhaps we should pay attention to another planet - Venus.
Second planet
Venus today is a very colorful definition of the word uninhabited: the temperature on the planet's surface is so high that it could melt lead, and the atmosphere is made of poisonous sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide. This is not to mention the fact that there is not even a trace of water. But has it always been this way?
Now there is more and more thorium that once Venus was not so inaccessible. American scientists have created several models demonstrating what this planet might once have looked like. Four models of Venus's surface were presented in a recently published article and are based on how much light the planet was receiving and how fast it was orbiting the sun. Today the "annual" revolution of Venus is 243 days.
Inhabited Venus
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According to scientists, there are several scenarios in their theory in which a second planet could support conditions conducive to the formation of life. Between three billion and 715 million years ago, Venus could have been habitable, with oceans, rainfall, and temperatures close to ours.
This is far from the first study to suggest that Venus may have sustained life on its surface, however, none of the earlier theories considered this possibility in such detail and visually. In fact, scientists from the University of Arizona have clearly demonstrated what an inhabited Venus could look like.
Surface conditions
Probably, the intense emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere led to the fact that the planet's temperature rose sharply due to the fact that the atmosphere became heavier and heavier, as if enveloping the planet in a thermal blanket that does not allow cooling. In the end, this led to the fact that now the surface of Venus resembles a description of hell.
Today, conditions there are so inhospitable that even the toughest creatures would not be able to survive. The content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 97%, the temperature reaches 470 degrees Celsius, the atmosphere is 90 times heavier than Earth, and the average pressure is 93 times higher. However, scientists suggest that billions of years ago, things could have been different.
So far, there is no evidence of the existence of water on the surface of Venus. Even possible traces of ancient shores found on Mars can no longer be found on Venus. Most of the planet's present surface was modeled by volcanic activity around 700 million years ago. Even if there was water, its traces have long been swept away by lava and minerals.
However, scientists do not deny the possibility of warm oceans on Venus. According to them, there, as well as on Earth, there could be water in contact with stones and organic molecules, which, at a suitable temperature and the presence of light, irreversibly undergo chemical evolution.