Venus may have been habitable before greenhouse warming dried up its rivers: Study

Researchers have found evidence to suggest that Earth's neighbouring planet Venus may have been habitable millions of years ago, which probably changed due to greenhouse warming. The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that Venus may possibly have had Earth-like climatic conditions but was turned into an inhabitable planet due to massive carbon dioxide emission from large volcanic eruptions. 

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Volcanic eruptions dried up water bodies

The research, carried out by Richard Ernst, an Earth Sciences scientist at Carleton University and others, is based on the study of radar image data for Venus that were provided by NASA’s 1990-94 Magellan mission, which was the first data collecting mission sent to Venus. Ernst and his teammates also studied Tesserae, tectonically complex units that occupy the surface of Venus. The study concluded that volcanic eruptions eroded the tesserae-filled water bodies and also caused greenhouse emissions.  

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"A global circulation model for Venus suggests that Earth-like conditions could have existed for most of Venusian history and that a runaway greenhouse effect changed Venus’ climate catastrophically and led to the loss of water. The cause of this greenhouse effect is typically linked to CO2 degassing during major volcanic eruptions, the timing and duration of which are the subject of debate," the study said. 

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A NASA study in 2016 had also suggested that Venus may have been habitable for up to 2 billion years of its early history. NASA used the computer modeling of the planet’s ancient climate and concluded that the planet might have had a liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures. The study was conducted by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in 2016. 

Venus today is an inhabitable planet with 462 degrees Celsius temperature at its surface and 90 times thicker CO₂ in its atmosphere than that of Earth. 

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