Venus is a neighbor of the earth and the second closest planet to the sun. According to the standard of livable zone, Venus, Earth and Mars are all planets in livable zone, and Venus is the closest planet to the Earth. The ancient Romans called it Venus, China called it Chang Geng, Qi Ming, Taibai or Taibai Venus, and Aphrodite in ancient Greek mythology. Period of revolution is 224.7438+0 Earth Day.
Venus is an Earth-like planet. Because its mass is similar to that of the Earth, it is sometimes called the "sister star" of the Earth. Structurally, Venus and the Earth have many similarities. Venus has a radius of about 6,073 kilometers, only 300 kilometers smaller than radius of the earth, its volume is 0.88 times that of the Earth, and its mass is 4/5 of that of the Earth. The average density is slightly less than that of the earth.
Structurally, it is not an exaggeration for Venus to be called the sister star of the earth. Although Venus is very similar to Earth in structure, its environment is quite different. The earth is a warm blue planet and a life planet. Venus, on the other hand, is a purgatory planet with a surface temperature as high as 500 degrees Celsius.
In our minds, Venus is the apocalyptic scene of purgatory, but a recent new study by scientists shows that Venus may have a perfect livable environment in about 2-3 billion years, and life may have enough time to thrive here. However, the drastic climate change 700 million years ago made Venus's atmosphere extremely dense and hot, and it also changed from a livable planet to a barren purgatory.
Scientists speculate that Venus was a livable planet 700 million years ago. If so, why did it become like this? In 1978, NASA's pioneer Venus probe found evidence that there may be a shallow sea on the surface of this planet. Subsequent studies investigated its surface and atmosphere, revealing new details of its transformation from a "terrestrial planet" to a "hell".
In the new study, NASA researchers conducted five kinds of simulations, showing different water coverage levels. According to the statement of the European Planetary Association, five simulations have shown that the temperature on Venus has been between 20℃ and 50℃ for about 3 billion years. This temperature is a very suitable temperature, which is better than the temperature of our present earth.
Venus had a suitable temperature 700 million years ago, so it is likely that there is also a lot of liquid water. The origin of liquid water on the surface of Venus is similar to that of the Earth. Because the planets in the livable zone are close to the sun, the surrounding space environment cannot form water. So the liquid water of Venus and the earth is brought by comets at the edge of the solar system or outside the solar system.
About 4 billion years ago, the solar system was very unstable when it was first formed. At that time, a large number of comets came to the inner galaxy from the edge of the solar system. They hit Mars, Earth and Venus, bringing a lot of water resources to the three planets. Although the surface environment of Mars is poor and there is no liquid water, scientists have found a large number of ancient riverbeds on the surface of Mars through detectors, which shows that there was a lot of liquid water on Mars a long time ago.
Similarly, Venus should have had a lot of liquid water on its surface a long time ago. Unfortunately, due to the thick atmosphere and acid rain layer of Venus, the surface temperature is too high, so it is difficult for the orbital probe to really see the surface, and it is also difficult for the probe to successfully land on Venus. Even if it succeeds, it can only survive for a short time. Therefore, we can't really understand the surface of Venus yet. There may be a large number of ancient riverbeds on the surface of Venus, which is evidence that it once had water.
Venus may have formed earlier than the earth, and it experienced a rapid cooling period about 4.2 billion years ago. With the continuous evolution of Venus, silicate rocks will slowly absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it in the crust of Venus. At this time, Venus has the climatic conditions to manage money. It has a thick atmosphere, and comets bring a lot of liquid water resources.
Such Venus fully supports the existence of life, so scientists speculate that Venus may have been as beautiful a life planet as the present earth 700 million years ago. But then a huge environmental change changed all this, so what kind of major events can completely change the environment of Venus? Scientists speculate that it may be violent volcanic activity.
Venus is a rocky planet, and naturally there are many volcanoes. 700 million years ago, global volcanic activity broke out in Venus. As magma and molten rocks rushed to the surface of Venus, a large amount of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere. If the magma has solidified before reaching the surface, it will form a barrier to prevent the gas from being reabsorbed.
As we all know, carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas, and a large amount of carbon dioxide is released from Venus with volcanic activity, which completely changes the atmospheric composition of Venus. 95% of the atmosphere of Venus that we have detected now is carbon dioxide, which has become the main gas of Venus, causing a serious greenhouse effect, which makes the surface temperature of Venus rise continuously, and the high temperature evaporates the liquid water on the surface, making life extinct.
If Venus became a planet of purgatory because of volcanic activity, then the future of the earth is also worrying. You know, the earth, like Venus, is also a planet with many volcanoes. The Siberian trap is one of the largest known volcanic activities in the past 500 million years. This event released a lot of toxic greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which led to a large number of species extinction.
In recent years, there have been several obvious volcanic eruptions on the earth. If those large extinct volcanoes on the earth erupt again in the future, will there be environmental changes like Venus 700 million years ago, which will make life extinct? It can be seen that Venus is the goal that human beings should focus on in the future. Only by truly understanding the history and evolution of Venus can we prevent the earth from repeating the tragedy of Venus in the future.
Maybe some people don't understand, since Venus is so important to the earth, why don't we send more probes to detect it? In fact, the main reason is that Venus has a thick atmosphere and a high surface temperature environment, so it is difficult for the probe to land, and the orbital probe cannot penetrate the thick atmosphere to see the surface of Venus. Therefore, it is useless to send more detectors.
Only when human science and technology are further advanced and more advanced detectors can land on the surface of Venus like Mars, will the real situation on the surface of Venus appear before us. Some scientists even think that although the current Venus environment is very bad, it is likely that there will still be Venus life suitable for this high temperature environment. And Venus has another secret that scientists don't understand, that is, Venus has no magnetic field.
It is reasonable to say that the structure of Venus is so similar to that of the earth that scientists believe that the core of Venus should also have an iron core as good as the earth's core. If so, Venus should have a magnetic field. However, Venus is the only planet in the solar system without a magnetic field. Whether the magnetic field of Venus never existed or disappeared for some reason remains to be explored and studied by future scientists.