Was Venus Once A Habitable World Like Earth?

Experts assume that traces habitable landforms would have disappeared after a few hundred million years.

Until now, attention to the search for a habitable planet was focused on Mars, since it is assumed that it had a structure similar to Earth. There are, however, argue that we should take into account other variables such as, for example, Venus.

In a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of American researchers simulated the appearance that supposedly had a Venus, recreating how its surface showed, but the amounts of sunlight that reached here. The experiment results have led scientists to conclude that the planet was habitable in 2.9 billion years ago and 715 million years before, because here there is a temperature and water surfaces similar to those on Terra.

However, no evidence was found so far to indicate the presence of water on the surface of Venus, as it happens, for example, in the case of Mars. Here, researchers have identified the fingerprints of former rivers and oceans and believe that such structures could be found on Venus, but they were reshaped during volcanic activity occurred ago over 700 million years.

Experts have assumed, since Venus there was a habitable environment, should not exclude the possibility that there existed forms of life: ,, Both planets have oceans where water might have come into contact with rocks and organic molecules, giving rise to chemical processes. From what we know so far, these are the conditions that make possible the emergence of life, "says David Grinspoon, one of the coordinators of the study conducted by the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona.

Although Venus was habitable for nearly 2 billion years, it is uncertain whether complex life forms could have developed during this period. In this regard, we are given the example of the Earth, where the development of complex organisms lasted about 3 billion years.

Even if the history of living on Venus could be considered, scientists say, however, that we need much more information to reach a conclusion in this regard

Other articles on the same theme:

• How life emerged on Earth? The old theory is removed

• Mars could support extraterrestrial life. A new image published by the European Space Agency shows the place that would have hosted life

• 10 fascinating planets outside the Solar System

• Cloudy days on exoplanets may hide atmospheric water

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