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The early Earth during the Hadean eon is believed by most scientists to have had a Venus-like atmosphere, with roughly 100 bar of CO 2 and a surface temperature of 230 °C, and possibly even sulfuric acid clouds, until about 4.0 billion years ago, by which time plate tectonics were in full force and together with the early water oceans, removed ...
The surface of Venus is comparatively flat. When 93% of the topography was mapped by Pioneer Venus Orbiter, scientists found that the total distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the entire surface was about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi), about the same as the vertical distance between the Earth's ocean floor and the higher summits of the Himalayas.
It is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" due to their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). The surface of Venus is covered by a dense atmosphere and presents clear evidence of former violent volcanic activity.
The European Space Agency has officially adopted two new space missions to study Venus from its atmosphere to inner core and to search for gravitational waves.
Prior to the early 1960s, the atmosphere of Venus was believed by many astronomers to have an Earth-like temperature. When Venus was understood to have a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere with a consequence of a very large greenhouse effect, [6] some scientists began to contemplate the idea of altering the atmosphere to make the surface more ...
“Life, uh… finds a way.” Except maybe not in the clouds of Venus. Sure, our sister planet makes Dante’s vision of Hell look like a tropical paradise. I mean, a greenhouse-driven surface ...
Venus's atmosphere is rich in primordial noble gases compared to that of Earth. [95] This enrichment indicates an early divergence from Earth in evolution. An unusually large comet impact [96] or accretion of a more massive primary atmosphere from the solar nebula [97] have been proposed to explain the enrichment.
Even though Venus is violently hostile to life, the planet is so similar to our own in makeup and location that it's often referred to as Earth's twin Venus may once have been habitable. Now it ...