Venus Remained 'Habitable' For Billions Of Years Until A Mysterious Calamity Hit It

At first go, the idea that Venus can be habitable appears weird. The kind of atmosphere that Venus has i.e. hot and hellish, no signs of life appears possible. The name ‘Venus’ is derived from a Roman Goddess of love and beauty while the planet is toxic and ultra-heated to support any form of life. According to a new study, scientists present a case that Venus could have once supported life alongside oceans of liquid water. The study further states that the life cycle on Venus continued till a major resurfacing event took place about 700 million years ago. 

After having stayed stable for billions of years, Venus turned into a ‘hellish hot house’ following the mysterious resurfacing event, observes a planetary scientist from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The final outcome of the research suggests that Venus spent most of its history with surface liquid water, plate tectonics. Venus enjoyed an Earth-like stability with liquid water in its oceans lasting up to 3 billion years.  

Different hypothetical scenarios in the history have been indicating towards the assertion that both deep (310-metre deep) and shallow (10-metre deep) simulated oceans covered Venus, keeping its temperature between 20 to 40 degrees Celsius, reports Science Alert. After that, a researcher observes, a huge amount of gas was released which remained suspended in the atmosphere being unabsorbed by the rocks. 

To compare the situation with Venus, Earth has a carbonate-silicate cycle in which CO2 is naturally removed from the atmosphere by getting absorbed into rocks. The process got interrupted on Venus in the wake of volcanic activity and thus, the cycle was suspended. 

The planet since then has become extraordinarily hot and its atmosphere being dominated by carbon dioxide and nitrogen.