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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."

18 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. We already knew there was life on Venus by psyconaut · · Score: 2, Funny

    After all, isn't that where women originated from?

    -psy

    1. Re:We already knew there was life on Venus by pmz · · Score: 3, Funny

      After all, isn't that where women originated from?

      But, then, the men arrived with beer, brauts, and football. The atmosphere turned in a matter of weeks.

      --
      Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
  2. Mmmmm... Mars by InsaneCreator · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mars is for wimps

    It's still better than having peanuts stuck between you teeth after eating a Snickers bar!

  3. the greenhouse effect by falsification · · Score: 4, Funny
    The hellish climate of Venus may have arisen far more recently than previously supposed

    It was fine until an oil magnate became their President.

    1. Re:the greenhouse effect by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 2

      Calling GW an anything magnate may be overstating things a bit.

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
  4. From the article by passthecrackpipe · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the article:

    Venus is virtually the same size as Earth and, on average, is our nearest neighbour. Today, its atmospheric temperatures are hot enough to melt lead and concentrated sulfuric acid continuously drizzles down from thick sulphurous clouds that completely block out the Sun.

    Sounds like human life originated on Venus, we totally fucked it up, and sent a "try again" genetic seeding material package to Earth. Seems we didn't learn much.....

    --
    People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
    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. 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."
  5. 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 yasth · · Score: 5, Informative

      Oxygen is a dangerous poison. Most early life (and lots still extant) not only do not need oxygen but are harmed by oxygen. Early life was probably based on hot methane plumes in the Earth's oceans, which is not dependent upon the sun, nor on oxygen.

      --
      I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
    2. 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).

  6. 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.
    1. Re:Question about plate tectonics by Baikala · · Score: 5, Informative

      The rapid heat exchange between magma and water allows the slow but stedy rock 'generation' process that pushes the tectotic placs apart from each other

      --
      16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
    2. Re:Question about plate tectonics by WTFmonkey · · Score: 2, Funny
      And what else also floats in water?

      Apples! Very small stones! Churches! CHURCHES!

    3. Re:Question about plate tectonics by zonx+lebaam · · Score: 2, Informative

      Perhaps not just water, but any kind of ocean or atmosphere that can boil away to provide a nice temperature gradient. There is an interesting article at: This dynamic earth, USGS

  7. 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.

  8. 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? :-)