Recently in the Venus Category

The unusual behaviour of sulphur in Venus' atmosphere cannot be explained by an 'aerial' form of extra-terrestrial life, according to a new study.

Life in the clouds of Venus, if present in sufficiently high abundance, must be affecting the atmospheric chemistry. It has been proposed that abundant Venusian life could obtain energy from its environment using three possible sulfur energy-metabolisms.

The chemical evolution of an exoplanetary Venus-like atmosphere is dependent upon the ultraviolet to near ultraviolet (FUV-NUV) radiation ratio from the parent star, the balance between CO2 photolysis and recombination via reactions that depend on the water abundance, and various catalytic chemical cycles.

A key item of interest for planetary scientists and astronomers is the habitable zone, or the distance from a host star where a terrestrial planet can maintain necessary temperatures in order to retain liquid water on its surface.

In this chapter, we focus on the long-term evolution of the atmosphere of Venus, and how it has been affected by interior/exterior cycles. The formation and evolution of Venus's atmosphere, leading to the present-day surface conditions, remain hotly debated and involve questions that tie into many disciplines.

Is there life on Venus? For more than a century, scientists have pondered this question. Now, there is renewed interest in Venus as a place that could support living organisms.

It's hard to imagine a more inhospitable world than our closest planetary neighbor.

The atmosphere of Venus remains mysterious, with many outstanding chemical connundra. These include: the unexpected presence of ~10 ppm O2 in the cloud layers; an unknown composition of large particles in the lower cloud layers; and hard to explain measured vertical abundance profiles of SO2 and H2O.

Scientists have proposed a new theory which suggests that possible lifeforms in the clouds of Venus could be setting off a cascade of chemical reactions that is making the environment much more habitable.

The Venus Life Finder Missions are a series of focused astrobiology mission concepts to search for habitability, signs of life, and life itself in the Venus atmosphere.