Venus is often called the other half of Earth. There are many things which are strikingly similar between Earth and Venus when it comes to size, mass distance and the chemical composition. However the similarity ends here. Venus is a hellish place with a crushing atmospheric pressure. Venus has surface temperatures enough to melt lead and corrosive clouds of Sulfuric acid float over the rocky barren desert surface.
Venus is today a burning hot and dry sphere of hell but it was not like this always. Prior to present research, it was presumed that Venus had enough water in its atmosphere so as to cover the whole planet with water 80 feet deep, if it were to rain down. However the sizzling temperatures on the planet’s surface would have preempted any such possibilities.
Scientists are now suggesting that the surface must have been covered with oceans of a liquid carbon dioxide. Carbon Dioxide is very common on Venus.
Dima Bolmatov, a theoretical physicist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the lead study author said, “Presently, the atmosphere of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide, 96.5 percent by volume.”
Carbon Dioxide is present on Earth and is known more for its green house effect. Carbon Dioxide has been blamed for global warming. Coming back to the Carbon Dioxide oceans on Venus, the gas could have been present in a “supercritical” state. In other words the Carbon Dioxide exists as a supercritical fluid which exhibits the properties of liquid and gases.
To better understand the nature of supercritical carbon dioxide on Venus, Bolmatov and his colleagues investigated the unusual properties of supercritical matter. It is generally assumed that in supercritical liquid, the physical properties changed gradually according to variations in pressure and temperatures. However computer simulations revealed that in a supercritical condition the shift of physical properties from gas to liquid can occur quite dramatically.
The atmospheric pressure on Venus is 90 times the pressure on Earth. However in its infancy the pressure could have been much higher and could have lasted for a very long period from 100 million to 200 million years. Liquid like supercritical carbon dioxide could have existed in such conditions.
Bolmatov told Space.com, “This in turn makes it plausible that geological features on Venus like rift valleys, river like beds, and plains are the fingerprints of near-surface activity of, carbon dioxide.”
The scientists detailed their findings in the Aug. 21 issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.order generic cialis online
