Thetwentieth 100 dreamerswho imagined Venuscovered in a thick oceanmay have been partly right , in a unusual sort of way . However , the latest explanation for the planet ’s extraordinary phylogeny conceives of sea very different from anything we know .
Venus ’s ambience is today made up for the most part of carbon dioxide , but it is recollect at at one time it hadplenty of H2O , enough , by some estimate , to compensate the surface cadence deep .
It is unlikely this ever occurred however , since even in its early days the planet may have been too hot for liquid H2O . Eventually so much water system was recede that now just 0.002 % of the atmosphere is water system vapor . Yet the airfoil has features that look like river valley and flood plains . The inquiry of what could have formed these iseven more puzzlingthanequivalent features on Mars .
In theJournal of Physical Chemistry LettersCornell ’s Dr Dima Bolmatov makes the fount that the ancient Venusian sea were formed from supercritical carbon dioxide .
CO2forms more than 96 % of Venus ’s standard pressure , and with a denseness 93 time that of Earth that throw for a destiny of the gas , with a runaway Greenhouse Effect that plow Venus into the hellhouse it is .
Under Earth ’s atmospherical stipulation atomic number 6 dioxidebecomes a gas at low temperature , and a liquid not at all . thing are dissimilar , however , under the intense atmospheric pressure of other worlds . There are thoughts that a satellite - wideocean of supercritical fluidsexist on exoplanet55 Cancri e.
We apply supercritical carbon dioxide to bring about pharmaceuticals and decaffeinate coffee beans but “ theoretical agreement of the supercritical res publica is lacking , ” Bolmatov notes , given the wide scope of possible conditions . replicate the surround of an early Venus in the lab is not easy , but Bolmatov ’s computer simulations of 14000 particle contained a surprisal . Rather than a gradual shift key between largely gaseous and melted behavior , Bolmatov concluded there are points of sudden break .
If , as has beenpreviously postulate , Venus ' atmosphere was several times denser than it is today during its first 100 - 200million years , the carbon dioxide may have had very liquid - like characteristics near the planet ’s surface
" This in turning make it plausible that geologic features on Venus like rift valleys , riverlike beds , and plains are the fingerprint of near - surface natural process of liquidlike supercritical carbon dioxide , " Bolmatovtold Space.com .
The whole major planet may not have been cover with an ocean , but Bolmatov but raises the possibility of things that , “ look like soap bubble …. A bubble of gas that is covered by a thick layer of liquidity . ” If these flow over the landscape painting they could have leave markings reminiscent of urine , which may have survive until the present Clarence Shepard Day Jr. .
Exploration of Venus is not easy , for all NASA ’s plan , but the author say , “ Our answer call for experimental watching ” of supercritical carbon paper dioxide to see whether it might have comport as required under possible early Venusian circumstance .
