Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

6 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Re:From the article by sab39 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "thick sulphurous clouds that completely block out the Sun" - the article

    "We don't know who struck first. But we do know that it was humans who darkened the sky." - Morpheus

    Venus is the real world, Earth is the Matrix?

    (yeah, I probably screwed up the Matrix quote. I'll surrender my geek credentials on my way out...)

  2. Focusing on Earth-like... by feidaykin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    We've found that microbes can survive inside devices that have been sitting on the freaking moon for an extended period of time, organisms can survive in the depths of Earths oceans at temperatures of 250F, yet we still believe that all life needs an Earth-like environment?

    We have no real evidence of this... I don't think it is fair to rule out any chance of finding life in extreme places.

    Venus may be our hell, but isn't it possible that somewhere in the universe, organisims exist that would thrive there?

    --

    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

    1. Re:Focusing on Earth-like... by zonx+lebaam · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes ... we know that at the time of early life development on earth the environment was dramatically different in terms of chemical composition, and probably temperature distribution (although water is a terrific temperature buffer). This changed gradually over 2.5 billion years in tandem with evolving life forms. So the rate at which environmental shifts occurred is at least as important as what the shifts actually were. If the change in environment was recent (i.e. "dramatic") that is worse news for existing venusian life than if Venus has been the way it is for a long time (on geologic/evolutionary scales).

  3. Re:From the article by GreenHell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's actually a Philip K. Dick story like that.
    Earth has been overmined, etc, and the environment is in a state of ruin. Humans send astronauts to Mars in the hopes of finding it habitable so that they can move their entire civilisation there.

    Once there it's discovered that an ancient race destroyed Mars and moved their entire civilisation to a new planet they had found, a veritable Eden, where the technology failed and they reverted back to a Stone Age civilisation.
    Unfortunately the astronauts can't find where this planet is, as all the equipment seems to have malfunctioned and is locked on Earth. (Well, all except one, who realises the significance of this fact, thereby giving the story its point.)

    Can't remember the name of it or which collection it's in. Anyone?

    --
    "I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
  4. Question about plate tectonics by clintp · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Once the water was lost, Grinspoon says, plate tectonics would have stopped completely,
    Why is water a prerequisite for plate tectonics?
    --
    Get off my lawn.
  5. Habstar Database, anyone? by kalidasa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    More generally, if this analysis is right, it means that the "habitable zone" for planets around other stars may be much wider than has been assumed, since Venus had been thought to be far outside it.

    Damn, if this is right, I guess they'll have to expand the HABSTAR database some. Isn't that terrible? :-)