Was Venus Ever Earth-Like?
For rocky planets, we usually rely heavily on geology to reveal their history. Not only is Venus’ surface incredibly hard to study, given the extreme environmental conditions, but there appears to have been a global catastrophic event around 1 billion years ago that remade the surface, destroying nearly all rocks from before the event. However, there is something that survived the event - the atmosphere! This event likely changed the atmosphere dramatically, setting in motion a transformation into the hellish world we see today. By modeling the atmosphere and running back the clock, we find Venus could have had a thinner atmosphere that would have trapped less heat. Together with a younger Sun that was 30% dimmer, this would have allowed liquid water to form vast oceans. Interestingly, water vapor clouds formed from these oceans may have blocked enough sunlight to make this early Venus a little cooler than Earth is today. Read More
Latest News About Venus
Venus and Earth used to look like 'twin' planets. What happened?
May 8, 2024
If you were an alien visiting 4 billion years ago, you would see 3 rocky planets, each of which had oceans Read more
Molecule responsible for robbing Venus of its water may finally have been identified
May 8, 2024
Venus may have harbored oceans for longer than previously thought Read more
Uninhabitable Venus offers lessons about potential for extraterrestrial life
April 23, 2024
Understanding how a rocky planet becomes habitable and remains so is a fundamental challenge Read more
BepiColombo detects escaping oxygen and carbon in unexplored region of Venus's magnetosphere
April 12, 2024
It may be an electrostatic 'wind' is lifting them Read more
How much of Venus's atmosphere is coming from volcanoes?
April 11, 2024
Venus is shrouded in clouds, making speculation about what's happening on its surface a parlor game Read more
How Venus threw up on itself
April 1, 2024
For such an old planet, Venus has a relatively young surface Read more
Life as we know it could exist on Venus, new experiment reveals
March 28, 2024
If Venus hosts lifeforms in its toxic clouds, they likely won't be deprived of amino acids Read more
NASA’s VERITAS mission breathes new life
March 25, 2024
The mission to Venus has been reinstated into NASA’s budget with a scheduled launch date of 2031 Read more
Venus as an anchor point for planetary habitability
March 15, 2024
These community consensus reports can help shape the exploration of Venus in the coming decades Read more
The six most amazing discoveries we’ve made by exploring Venus
February 14, 2024
“Venus is the exoplanet next door,” says Suzanne Smrekar Read more
What is Venus' quasi-moon Zoozve?
February 12, 2024
Zoozve’s orbit is unstable, meaning it will eventually be ejected from its quasi-satellite orbit Read more
No alien life needed: Dark streaks in Venus' atmosphere can be explained by iron minerals
January 15, 2024
New experiments may have solved one of Venus' biggest mysteries Read more
Wispy ice clouds may form above Venus' hellish surface
January 9, 2024
Some regions of its atmosphere remain cool enough to harbor ice Read more
New study suggests some forms of life could exist in Venus's sulfuric acid clouds
January 9, 2024
Sulfuric acid could serve as a liquid medium for some form of life Read more
Stolen and destroyed moon may have flipped Venus’s spin, messing it up for good
January 8, 2024
Venus spins in the opposite direction compared to the other planets Read more
Should we send humans to Venus?
November 29, 2023
Above the clouds, the temperature and pressure are almost like a nice spring day here on Earth Read more
Between Venus' atmospheric currents, a layer of reactive oxygen
November 9, 2023
The highly reactive oxygen shouldn't pose a threat to any future missions to the planet Read more
Billions of years ago, Venus may have had a key Earthlike feature
October 26, 2023
It once may have had plate tectonics that could have made it more hospitable to life Read more
Venus’ atmospheric chemistry and cloud characteristics are compatible with Venusian life
October 15, 2023
Defenses against sulfuric acid are conceivable and have terrestrial precedent Read more
'Lightning' on Venus is actually meteors burning up in planet's atmosphere
September 14, 2023
Future missions are safe from both rare lightning strikes and meteors Read more
Could the clouds of Venus support life?
September 1, 2023
New missions aim to determine if airborne droplets provide a place for microbes to thrive Read more
Floating seismometers could help peer into the core of Venus
August 20, 2023
Don’t seismometers usually have to sit on the ground to detect something? Read more
Volcanism on Venus fueled by powerful ancient impacts
July 27, 2023
Venus lacks plate tectonics. Yet, somehow, it also has a geologically young surface Read more
Life on Venus? Intriguing molecule phosphine spotted in planet's clouds again
July 7, 2023
There's a new chapter in the Venus phosphine debate Read more
Even though its surface is a horror show, life could thrive elsewhere on Venus
June 19, 2023
The atmosphere is not entirely inhospitable, according to new research Read more
Why is Venus so different from Earth?
May 18, 2023
It's is closer to the Sun, but that alone cannot explain the dramatic differences between our two worlds Read more
There are more than 85,000 volcanoes on Venus
April 15, 2023
This is bringing us closer to understanding the planet’s evolution and geological structure Read more
What would it be like to stand on the surface of Venus?
April 11, 2023
Imagine having 1,350 pounds resting on one square inch of your body Read more
Why we need VERITAS
April 5, 2023
It would map Venus’ surface to understand why it developed so differently than Earth Read more
Fascinating Facts About Venus
Compare Venus to Earth
Venus vs Earth
- From the cloud tops, the Sun appears about one and a half times as large as it does from Earth and sunlight is about 2 times brighter. At the surface the Sun cannot be seen through the cloud cover and sunlight is dimmed significantly.
- To human eyes, Venus appears a nearly featureless white orb. Cloud features can be seen in spacecraft imagery by looking beyond visible light in either infrared or ultraviolet light.
- It rotates in the opposite direction to the other planets, and takes a little longer to spin once than to go around the Sun. This slow backward rotation has a curious effect: there are about two day/night cycles per Venus year, even though it only spins around once in that time.
- Its winds are super-rotational, meaning they move faster than the planet rotates, reaching speeds of 400 kph (250 mph). On Earth, for winds to be super-rotational, they would have to be traveling at over 1600 kph (1000 mph).
- Because its thick atmosphere is so effective at holding on to heat, the surface temperature does not vary much between night and day or from equator to pole. The planet also has almost no tilt, so there are no seasonal changes either.
- The atmospheric pressure at the surface is 92 times greater than Earth’s, equivalent to the pressure felt at 1 km deep in the ocean on Earth. Think of it like the weight of a small car pressing down on your thumbnail.
- It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, and is the only major planet in the Solar System to be named after a female diety.
Missions
Akatsuki/ Planet-C (2010)
JAXA mission to study weather patterns on Venus
Venus Express (2005)
ESA mission to study Venus’ atmosphere and clouds
Magellan (1989)
Mission to make radar maps of Venusian surface
Vega 1 & 2 (1984)
Soviet Union mission to deliver landers and balloons to Venus
Pioneer Venus (1978)
Mission to investigate solar wind in the Venusian environment
Mariner 10 (1973)
Flyby mission to Venus and Mercury
Mariner 5 (1967)
Mission to collect data on Venus’ atmosphere, radiation and magnetic field
Mariner 2 (1962)
First Venus flyby
Venera Missions (1961-1983)
Soviet Union missions to orbit Venus, probe the atmosphere or reach the surface