Is it possible to make venus habitable

A gas found on Earth that signifies life has also been detected in the atmosphere of Venus , according to new research published last month. The "entirely surprising" discovery of phosphine could hint at unknown processes occurring on Venus. Kane believes it is possible that the gas could represent "the last surviving species on a planet that went through a dramatic change in its environment. Our crazy finding suggesting life on Venus.

However, this is unlikely, he said, because those microbes would have needed to endure in Venus' sulfuric acid clouds for a billion years after the planet lost liquid water on its surface. But understanding how Venus shifted from potentially habitable to inhospitable is key. Whereas treatments of the subject were largely fantastical in the early 20th century, a transition occurred with the beginning of the Space Age. As our knowledge of Venus improved, so too did the proposals for altering the landscape to be more suitable for human habitation.

Since the early 20th century, the idea of ecologically transforming Venus has been explored in fiction. By the s and 60s, owing to the beginning of the Space Age , terraforming began to appear in many works of science fiction.

Poul Anderson also wrote extensively about terraforming in the s. In his novel, The Big Rain , Venus is altered through planetary engineering techniques over a very long period of time. In , author G. In , he followed this series up with the release of , a science fiction novel that dealt with the colonization of the entire Solar System — which includes Venus.

The novel also explored the many ways in which Venus could be terraformed, ranging from global cooling to carbon sequestration, all of which were based on scholarly studies and proposals. The first proposed method of terraforming Venus was made in by Carl Sagan. The proposal would also require iron aerosol to be added to the atmosphere, which could be derived from a number of sources i. The remaining atmosphere, estimated to be around 3 bars three times that of Earth , would mainly be composed of nitrogen, some of which will dissolve into the new oceans, reducing atmospheric pressure further.

Another idea is to bombard Venus with refined magnesium and calcium, which would sequester carbon in the form of calcium and magnesium carbonates. Through mining, these minerals could be exposed to the surface, thus acting as carbon sinks. However, Bullock and Grinspoon also claim this would have a limited cooling effect — to about K For Venus, which absorbs twice as much sunlight as Earth, solar radiation is believed to have played a major role in the runaway greenhouse effect that has made it what it is today.

Such a shade could be space-based, located in the Sun—Venus L1 Lagrangian point , where it would prevent some sunlight from reaching Venus. Alternately, solar reflectors could be placed in the atmosphere or on the surface. This could consist of large reflective balloons, sheets of carbon nanotubes or graphene, or low-albedo material. The former possibility offers two advantages: for one, atmospheric reflectors could be built in-situ, using locally-sourced carbon. Venus rotates once every days, which is by far the slowest rotation period of any of the major planets.

The slow rotation also probably accounts for the lack of a significant magnetic field. To address this, British Interplanetary Society member Paul Birch suggested creating a system of orbital solar mirrors near the L1 Lagrange point between Venus and the Sun. Combined with a soletta mirror in polar orbit, these would provide a hour light cycle. For starters, impactors directed at the surface would blow some of the atmosphere off into space.

Other methods include space elevators and mass accelerators ideally placed on balloons or platforms above the clouds , which could gradually scoop gas from the atmosphere and eject it into space. And given the range of choices — Mars, the Moon, and the Outer Solar System — Venus has several things going for it the others do not. For starters, Venus is a terrestrial planet that is similar in size, mass and composition to Earth. As a result, humans living on Venus would be at a far lower risk of developing health problems associated with time spent in weightlessness and microgravity environments — such as osteoporosis and muscle degeneration.

With current propulsion systems, launch windows to Venus occur every days, compared to the days for Mars. Flight time is also somewhat shorter since Venus is the closest planet to Earth. In testing out various ecological engineering techniques, our scientists would learn a great deal about their effectiveness.

This information, in turn, will come in mighty handy in the ongoing fight against Climate Change here on Earth. And in the coming decades, this fight is likely to become rather intense.

As the NOAA reported in March of , carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have now surpassed ppm, a level not seen since the the Pliocene Era — when global temperatures and sea level were significantly higher. And as a series of scenarios computed by NASA show, this trend is likely to continue until , with severe consequences.

In one scenario, carbon dioxide emissions will level off at about ppm toward the end of the century, resulting in an average temperature increase of 2. In the second scenario, carbon dioxide emissions rise to about ppm, resulting in an average increase of about 4. Whereas the increases predicted in the first scenario are sustainable, in the latter scenario, life will become untenable on many parts of the planet. So in addition to creating a second home for humanity, terraforming Venus could also help to ensure that Earth remains a viable home for our species.

It would also require infrastructure that does not yet exist and would be very expensive to build. Such a structure, if positioned at L1, would also need to be four times the diameter of Venus itself. If any life originated on early Venus, it would probably have been in the very earliest evolutionary stages when it became extinct, says Hoening. But around the million-year mark, it only took about million years, says Hoening, for Venus to morph from a relatively habitable surface climate to something that would be totally untenable for life as we know it.

Computer simulations tell us that we really need the right mantle and crustal material and the right surface temperature for plate tectonics, he says. We probably also need the right heat flow from the mantle with maybe even a hydrated crust, says Hoening.

Artwork of the Venera 9 spacecraft on the surface of Venus. The Venera probes were a series of ten Venera 9 was launched on 8 June It arrived in Venus orbit on 20 October and, two days later, dispatched the Venera 9 lander, shown here. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. More information Privacy policy. This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties.

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