Venus may have once been able to support life
Today's Venus can be described as hellish: there is almost no water vapor, the carbon dioxide atmosphere is 90 times as thick as that on Earth and temperatures can reach a scorching 864 degrees. NASA reported, though, that it might not always been the case.
NASA scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York have used modeling to observe the ancient climate of the planet. They saw that Venus may have had both liquid-water oceans and cooler temperatures for up to two billion years.
SEE ALSO: 8 eerie sounds recorded in space
How fast a planet spins affects its climate; one day on Venus is equal to 117 days on Earth. It used to be thought that this was due to a thick atmosphere, but now scientists say that Venus could've had a thin, Earth-like atmosphere billions of years ago.
"In the GISS model's simulation, Venus' slow spin exposes its dayside to the sun for almost two months at a time," co-author and GISS scientist Anthony Del Genio said.
RELATED: NASA's Juno spacecraft lands on Jupiter
GISS scientists saw that ancient Venus had more dry land than modern Earth, but it also had enough water to support life. There was also enough land to prevent plant sensitivity to sunlight. What's more, the ancient sun was 30 percent dimmer.
"[Venus' slow spin] warms the surface and produces rain that creates a thick layer of clouds, which acts like an umbrella to shield the surface from much of the solar heating," Del Genio said. "The result is mean climate temperatures that are actually a few degrees cooler than Earth's today."
