![]() The ingredients are all there, or at least, they used to be. Asked if the surface of Venus is likely to be life-bearing today, we can give a quick answer: a hard “no.”įurther, Venus may hold lessons about what it takes for life to get its start – on Earth, in our solar system, or across the galaxy. The present-day surface of volcanic rock is blasted by high temperatures and pressures. A runaway greenhouse effect turned all surface water into vapor, which then leaked slowly into space. It might once have been a habitable ocean world, like Earth, but that was at least a billion years ago. ![]() In some ways it is more an opposite of Earth than a twin: Venus spins backward, has a day longer than its year, and lacks any semblance of seasons. The atmosphere is so thick that, from the surface, the Sun is just a smear of light. Our nearest planetary neighbor, the second planet from the Sun, has a surface hot enough to melt lead. But pull up a bit closer, and Venus turns hellish. It's a cloud-swaddled planet named for a love goddess, often called Earth’s twin.
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