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Venusian Climate May Have Been Habitable

Posted by michael on from the goggles-do-nothing dept.

tqft writes "Venus - life signs maybe - 'The hellish climate of Venus may have arisen far more recently than previously supposed, suggests new research. If so, pleasant Earth-like conditions probably persisted for two billion years after the planet's birth - plenty of time for life to have developed.' Mars is for wimps afraid of a real hot acid drenched challenge."

2 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Life might still be there by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If life ever arose on Venus, it is still going to be there. Simply raising the temperature 100K until it is hot enough to melt lead and bathing the entire planet in acid isn't enough to wipe out all life. There are going to be extremophiles all over. And the best thing is that we probably don't have to worry much about about contamination when we're studying it.

    1. Re:Life might still be there by kalidasa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ah, but the *surface* temperature may have risen a hell of a lot more than 100K. Remember what it says in the article, that the surface melted and reformed. Maybe you're right - airborne extremophiles might have survived, and maybe sulfur breathers - but we can't be sure about it.