By human standards, a descent onto Venus mirrors a fall through different circles of hell. As visitors approach, they would first pass through a thick haze of sulfuric acid. Further below are heavy metal snows that drift over mountain peaks. Finally, upon touching down, the average surface temperature — ranging from 800 to 900 degrees Fahrenheit — would bake explorers like a Neapolitan pizza.
Even the gas molecules from the visitors’ steaming remains would be unwelcome on the planet, eventually blasted into space by what scientists are calling a strong “electric wind.”
If Earth were born with a twin, out of all of the planets in the solar system, it should have been Venus. Earth and Venus are roughly the same size, and millions of years ago, Venus possibly had Earth-like oceans. But our sunny-side sister is now arid, its Venusian air as much as 100,000 times as dry as Earth’s. Chemical hints are all that is left of oceans on Venus. One of the strongest clues is atmospheric deuterium, a form of hydrogen found in earthly seas, which remains on Venus like a chalk outline of long-dead bodies of water.
[Venus could have active volcanoes, a rarity in the solar system]
The lack of oxygen and other ions associated with water is puzzling. If Venus once had liquid water, its molecules should linger in the atmosphere. The grip of gravity does not simply let go, no matter how hot a planet is. Scientists previously thought that the sun, blasting Venus with a stream of particles known as solar wind, had stripped the planet of its steam.
But, according to new research from an international team of scientists, the sun is only indirectly a factor. The true culprit, they say, is Venus’s super-strong electric wind.
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