Venus Water Loss: New Evidence Suggests Why the Hellish World Lost Its Liquid [Study]

Venus is an Earth-like planet in terms of size, mass, and composition, earning its title as our planet's twin. However, it is also completely different from ours in many ways; some of them are the absence of water, the planet's rotation speed, and its current state of being a barren wasteland.

As the second nearest planet to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in our Solar System, even surpassing Mercury despite being the closest. Recently, research by scientists in the United States may have figured out why Venus lost its water and entered its dry state as we see it now.

Venus Water Loss

Scientists believe that Earth's planetary neighbor was not always in its current state. In fact, in its ancient past, Venus has long been thought of by many as a habitable planet, with an environment that resembles our Blue Planet, until it became a barren wasteland. This transition into a hellish world, including the loss of water, has remained a mystery to scientists and other experts for decades.

In a study published in the journal Nature on Monday, May 6, researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder may have solved the Venus water loss mystery. According to the research paper's findings, Venus may have lost its liquid resource through a chemical reaction called HCO+ dissociative recombination, which potentially challenges previous theories as to how Venus dried out.

Is Venus a Habitable Planet?

Humans had previously thought whether Venus was a habitable planet, but turned out to be hostile to life based on astronomical data gathered over the past several decades. During the 1960s, telescopes confirmed modern-day Venus is not conducive for life. Its environment has thick acidic clouds with a temperature reaching 900 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the University of Chicago.

According to the university's study announced in March 2023, Venus lost its water early on in its history, meaning there is only a small probability that the planet was ever habitable. Geophysical scientist Sasha Warren, the study's first author and graduate student from the said university, stated her team's findings show that 70% of Venus' history has been uninhabitable.

Mars Colonization

The US university-led studies on Venus in 2023 and as of May 2024 come several years after initiatives for the settlement of Mars gained momentum. The Mars colonization initiative pertains to the potential migration of humans to Mars, which is also currently not a habitable planet. However, scientists deemed our Martian neighbor to be the easiest planet to colonize across the Solar System.

In 2015, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced plans for future Mars settlements; wherein related future Mars missions will include a collaboration between its agency and its partners. Despite the bold concepts and plans for this initiative, the notion of humans completely colonizing Mars remains theoretical but in progress at this time.