Is Venus the new Mars?
Exploration of Venus could cast light on why planets become habitable, says Mount Holyoke鈥檚 Darby Dyar.
Momentum is building in the scientific community to explore Venus. The planet has been long neglected for study in favor of Mars, Earth鈥檚 other nearby neighbor.
Venus is now coming into the spotlight in hopes that it could reveal what makes a planet habitable. While today Venus is inhospitable to life, with surface temperatures of more than 400 degrees Celsius and clouds of sulfuric acid blowing through the sky, it was once Earth鈥檚 twin in terms of size, density and chemical makeup.
Recent research has even suggested that Venus could have looked like Earth for three billion years, with vast oceans that could have been friendly to life.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what sets my imagination on fire,鈥 said Darby Dyar, professor of astronomy at 成人视频College, in an article in Nature. 鈥淚f that鈥檚 the case, there was plenty of time for evolution to kick into action.鈥
She continued, 鈥淲hy are we investing so much time looking for life on Mars when it only had liquid water for 400 million years? And then there鈥檚 Venus with three billion years of water and no one loves her.鈥
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