is 92 times of that of on Earth's surface. Hence, Venus has an extremely dense atmosphere. The abundance of carbon dioxide and thick clouds of sulfur dioxide is responsible for the greatest greenhouse effect in the Solar System. It causes hot surfaces, even hotter than Mercury, and its ...
Even Venus’ present-day mantle convection regime is peculiar, lacking the subduction zones and the clear dichotomy between continental and oceanic crust we see on Earth, it also displays more traces of horizontal motion and deformation than the clear stagnant lids operating on Mars and Mercury. ...
with little absorption. This has two important consequences. First, the scattering randomizes the direction of photons so that the top-of-atmosphere radiance is a blurred image of the surface thermal emission. Moroz (2002) estimates that the blurring reduces...
Earth is an ocean world, with water covering about 71% of its surface. Venus, our closest planetary neighbor, is sometimes called Earth’s twin based on their similar size and rocky composition. While its surface is baked and barren today, might Venus once also have been covered by oceans?
of the radiation that makes its way out to space comes from only the very topmost parts of theatmosphere, it can look as cold as Mars in infra-red (IR) imagery. In reality, the surface of Venus (Fig. 2) is even hotter than the dayside of Mercury, at a deadly 477 °C (890 °F...
R.G. Aitken, an astronomer at Lick Observatory, argued that if Venus did rotate similar to the Earth “we have reason to believe that it is habitable, for the conditions we named as essential to life—air, water in its liquid form and a moderate temperature—are undoubtedly realized.” ...