Venus, Cloudy With A Chance of Life

Why We Study Venus

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, even though Mercury is twice as close to the Sun and receives 4 times more solar energy. The reason? Venus’ thick, carbon dioxide atmosphere causes a runaway greenhouse effect. At the surface Venus has an atmosphere 50 times denser than Earth’s, and average surface temperatures of 470 degrees Celsius (878 degrees Fahrenheit)—hot enough to melt lead.

Venus is currently inhospitable, but it wasn’t always that way. Missions there have observed granite-like rocks that require abundant water to form. In the solar system's early days when the Sun was cooler, scientists think the planet may have had liquid water on the surface for 2 billion years—far longer than Mars, which had liquid water for a relatively shorter 300 million years. Water is the key to life as we know it, so did Venus once have life?

Scientists including Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan have predicted that life could currently exist in Venus' upper atmosphere, which has Earth-like temperatures and pressures roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) above the planet's surface. There, mysterious dark patches absorb more than half the planet's solar energy. In 2020 scientists announced they had found phosphine, a chemical strongly associated with life, in Venus's clouds—though the existence of the signal is currently being reviewed.

We don't know how Venus transformed from a potentially habitable world to its current hellish state. By studying Venus, scientists learn how Earth-like planets evolve and what conditions exist on Earth-sized exoplanets. Venus also helps scientists model Earth’s climate, and serves as a cautionary tale on how dramatically a planet’s climate can change.