Was there life on Venus?

ToSeek · #1 (**permalink**) 18-August-2004, 07:59 PM

Venus: Inhabited World?
Interview with David Grinspoon

Quote:

Venus almost certainly had liquid water when it was young. So the conditions for the origin of life, as conventionally defined, were satisfied there as much as on Earth and Mars.

We've been hearing a lot about how Mars may never have been warm, so perhaps Venus was more habitable in that sense than Mars. It may have been Venus and Earth that were the two young habitable planets, perhaps even exchanging material through impact ejecta, like we hear more commonly described as a relationship between young Mars and young Earth. It may in fact have been Venus and Earth that were enjoying this exchange.

Another intriguing thing about early Venus is that it may have had an oxygen-rich atmosphere. You had this massive loss of hydrogen to space from water, and what's left is all that oxygen. We've heard a lot about the rise of oxygen being important in the development of complex life on Earth. Perhaps Venus was a warm, wet planet with an oxygenated atmosphere much earlier than Earth.

Swift · #2 (**permalink**) 18-August-2004, 08:07 PM

It sounds like this thread.

ToSeek · #3 (**permalink**) 18-August-2004, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swift

It sounds like this thread.

Yeah, there were steamy jungles, but that was two billion years ago.

NZborngal · #4 (**permalink**) 19-August-2004, 06:01 AM

Reminds me of a a book the New Zealand autheor, Ken Catran wrote: Doomfire on Venus It was an ok book, but set on (where else?) Venus. The end (spoilers alert!) results in the clouds being blown away by some kind of explosion (no the planet itself does not explode!). The event enabled humankind/animals to then live on the now hospitable Venus...and no, it wasn't a pre-probe-going-to-Venus-and-revealing-its-true-(shall we say?)-nature. In fact, it was written in the 80's or 90's.

eburacum45 · #5 (**permalink**) 19-August-2004, 06:39 AM

David Grinspoon was also responsible for this idea;
Life in the clouds of Venus

sounds a bit like To'ul'h...

Glom · #6 (**permalink**) 19-August-2004, 10:49 AM

I want steamy jungle Venus. Are we sure Venera and Magellan and Marina and ground based radio mapping was right?

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode