Initially Venus and Earth were like twins. They had similar size, mass, density, composition and gravity. But due to some family issues, they both followed a different evolutionary path. Earth grew up and became a life friendly water planet. On the other side, Venus turned into a not so life friendly planet with a thick atmosphere with deadly sulfuric acid clouds. Because of the thickness, most of the heat always gets trapped inside. As a result, it became the hottest planet in our solar system with surface temperatures hot enough to melt metals like lead.
That’s why major space organizations like NASA or ESA didn’t find launching exploring missions to deadly planets like Venus worth the money anymore. They are more interested in exploring planets that are more likely to support any kinds of extraterrestrial life. According to some scientists, because of the temperature and acidic clouds, the chances of life on planets like Venus is almost non-existent.
But Venus wasn’t always like that. According to scientists, Venus formed out of ingredients similar to Earth’s. Measurements by NASA’s Pioneer mission to Venus in the 1980s first suggested Venus originally may have had an ocean. But unfortunately as you know, Venus is closer to the sun than Earth and receives far more sunlight. As a result, all the oceans evaporated and made it the hottest planet in our solar system.
But a few months ago, scientists unexpectedly found the presence of Phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. In case you don’t know, Phosphine is a chemical that, on Earth, is produced primarily by living organisms. So does that mean there’s life on Venus? Well, we still don’t know. Existence of phosphine itself doesn’t prove the existence of life completely.
But after reanalysing the data from the old Pioneer mission, scientists found the presence of several minor chemical species in Venus’ clouds including phosphine, hydrogen sulfide, nitrous acid, nitric acid, hydrogen cyanide, and possibly ammonia.
The presence of those chemicals suggest that Venus’ clouds are not at equilibrium. So there’s a chance that microorganisms are inhabiting the atmosphere of Venus. But scientists need the exact answer and to find the exact answer they need more evidence. Because of that, almost every major space organization is now interested in exploring Venus.
NASA is going to launch two new Venus missions Verital and Davinci+ in the end of this decade, in between 2028 and 2030. On the other side ESA is also going to launch its own Venus mission EnVision in the early 2030s.
They are going to monitor the atmospheric gases and analyze the surface composition to collect some possible evidence for the existence of life on Venus.
Anyways If you had the chance to choose between Mars or Venus for exploration, what’d you choose right now? Let us know in the comment section down below.
Why Everyone Wants To Go To The Venus Right Now?
Initially Venus and Earth were like twins. They had similar size, mass, density, composition and gravity. But due to some family issues, they both followed a different evolutionary path. Earth grew up and became a life friendly water planet. On the other side, Venus turned into a not so life friendly planet with a thick atmosphere with deadly sulfuric acid clouds. Because of the thickness, most of the heat always gets trapped inside. As a result, it became the hottest planet in our solar system with surface temperatures hot enough to melt metals like lead.
That’s why major space organizations like NASA or ESA didn’t find launching exploring missions to deadly planets like Venus worth the money anymore. They are more interested in exploring planets that are more likely to support any kinds of extraterrestrial life. According to some scientists, because of the temperature and acidic clouds, the chances of life on planets like Venus is almost non-existent.
But Venus wasn’t always like that. According to scientists, Venus formed out of ingredients similar to Earth’s. Measurements by NASA’s Pioneer mission to Venus in the 1980s first suggested Venus originally may have had an ocean. But unfortunately as you know, Venus is closer to the sun than Earth and receives far more sunlight. As a result, all the oceans evaporated and made it the hottest planet in our solar system.
But a few months ago, scientists unexpectedly found the presence of Phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. In case you don’t know, Phosphine is a chemical that, on Earth, is produced primarily by living organisms. So does that mean there’s life on Venus? Well, we still don’t know. Existence of phosphine itself doesn’t prove the existence of life completely.
But after reanalysing the data from the old Pioneer mission, scientists found the presence of several minor chemical species in Venus’ clouds including phosphine, hydrogen sulfide, nitrous acid, nitric acid, hydrogen cyanide, and possibly ammonia.
The presence of those chemicals suggest that Venus’ clouds are not at equilibrium. So there’s a chance that microorganisms are inhabiting the atmosphere of Venus. But scientists need the exact answer and to find the exact answer they need more evidence. Because of that, almost every major space organization is now interested in exploring Venus.
NASA is going to launch two new Venus missions Verital and Davinci+ in the end of this decade, in between 2028 and 2030. On the other side ESA is also going to launch its own Venus mission EnVision in the early 2030s.
They are going to monitor the atmospheric gases and analyze the surface composition to collect some possible evidence for the existence of life on Venus.
Anyways If you had the chance to choose between Mars or Venus for exploration, what’d you choose right now? Let us know in the comment section down below.