Was Venus a Site Where Life Could Have Formed

         Venus is often called Earth’s sister planet. This is where I am going to start to see if Venus would have been habitable or if it is possible to developed life down the road. For me this was one of the likely candidates. This is because of the size and the fact that it is a rocky planet as opposed to a jovian planet. The diameter of Venus is 12,104km which is very close to that of Earth which is 12,756km. There are also other similarities between the two planets these are size, mass, density and composition. However, this is all that they have in common.  Venus is closer to the sun then Earth and thus the temperature of the planet would be higher (average temperature is 462 degrees Celsius), and the days of the year are shorter.  This huge average temperature at the surface is caused by the thick and toxic atmosphere that surrounds the planet. The atmosphere is composed mainly of CO2 and sulphuric acid which would be toxic to people. There were also probes that have been sent which have not lasted long before they are destroyed by the high temperatures. One of Earth’s features that makes it unique is the presence of the inner iron core this gives Earth its magnetic field which allows protection from the solar winds. Venus does have and iron core about 3000km in radius. However, Venus rotates too slowly to generate this magnetic field. One other thing that Venus is lacking that is crucial to life is that Venus does not have any moons. Earth’s moon is large compared to other planets and it gives us our tides and helps with the precession of our Earth.

Figure obtained from: http://www.space-screensavers.com/planet-venus.html

To me there are too many factors that have to be overcome in order to make Venus habitual. There has been some talk about bringing algae into Venus’s atmosphere at these temperatures algae would survive and could possibly consume the CO2 that is in the atmosphere and convert it to O2. This is what occurred to Earth when the moon was formed, Earth became this “fireball” and the small single celled organisms were able to survive and they brought life to the planet. This I feel will not take into account some of the other factors that Venus has going against it. For example, the lack of a large moon, and what about water?  Next time I will look at Mars to see if there would be any possibility there, since there is proof of liquid ice.

Information was obtained from:

http://library.thinkquest.org/26490/Venus.html

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/venus-article/