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posted by janrinok on Monday August 15 2016, @08:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the ...by-us dept.

In a paper (PDF of full article) which has been accepted for Geophysical Research Letters, NASA researchers

created a suite of 3-dimensional climate simulations using topographic data from the Magellan mission, solar spectral irradiance estimates for 2.9 and 0.715 billion years ago, present-day Venus orbital parameters, an ocean volume consistent with current theory and measurements, and an atmospheric composition estimated for early Venus.

According to the output of the general circulation model, "Venus may have had a climate with liquid water on its surface for approximately 2 billion years." In the simulation, extensive, highly reflective, H2O clouds formed on the lit side of the planet. "A strong day-night circulation" carried heat to the dark side. These factors limited the range of temperatures, in spite of a slow rotation rate. The authors note that liquid water can be not only a sign of habitability, but a cause of it:

[...] while the possibility of surface liquid water defines the traditional habitable zone, our results suggest that a planet with a modest amount of surface liquid water is more conducive to habitability over a wide range of stellar fluxes than a planet largely or completely covered by water. The inner edge should therefore be considered a transition region in which the probability of habitability gradually decreases inward rather than a strict boundary separating completely different regimes.

Venus today has little water. The high ratio of deuterium to protium (as compared to the ratio in Earth's surface water) leads us to believe that large most of the planet's hydrogen has escaped to space.

in the popular press:


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by maxwell demon on Tuesday August 16 2016, @01:50PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday August 16 2016, @01:50PM (#388674) Journal

    But wasn't that bought by Oracle? Better don't rely on it any more! :-)

    --
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