Could life have existed on Venus?

Hmmnn...

I guess I should post this in 'science&tech', but I wanted to see if anyone out there was willing to work this into an ET theory:

www.newscientist.com...

Supposedly, a new study has shown that, before the greenhouse effect took over, Venus was hospitable to life.

Now, though I doubt ETs are descended from ancient Venusians, the study expands the limits of what can be termed the life zone that wraps around a star... that is, An orbit as close to a sunlike star's as Venus' is might NOT be too warm for life.... An interesting point to think about when estimating how many stars support life.

OIMD,

Several years back I began to speculate that if we were to rewind the proposed environmental degradations that have taken place on Venus and Mars, we would probably be surprised to find that Venus had a higher probability of life than Mars.

I cannot shake the feeling that the current Venutian atmosphere seems to evidence a time when there could have been a more conducive planet to life.

The tremendous surface pressure and metal-eating acidic atmosphere that now envelopes Venus can be extrapolated from a severe Greenhouse effect over a long period of time.

I really can't reject this hypothesis, but instead find it quite plausible.

Welcome back or something along those lines

I would agree that Venus Could have or may still hold some form of life. Life is a really wierd thing. It has a tendency of showing up in the most un-hospitable places on our little rock so why not others? I'm not saying "intelligent" life, but life in general.
Six hundred million years is but a nanosecond in planetary terms yet I could see microbial life forming on venus in that time. There is still so much to be explored in "life science" that we, as humans, are nothing more than infants in the overall scheme of things.

Who knows, we could've been migrated from Venus billions of years ago.

my 2 cents.

Life on earth, at least at its most basic form, can be quite hardy and surive very extreme conditions. I imagine Venus at least at one point had some kind of life on it. It probably still does.

Thats sort of what I was thinking damefool, only that whatever life existed (sp) used up the planets resources and basiclly ended up destroying the planet so to speak, kind of the way we are. That could be why it has a greenhouse effect or it could be just the way the planet is.

Till Next Time,
BlackRose

I dont know what the chances of life in the far past on Venus, but I honestly cannot imagine something that can survive there now.

The atmospheric pressure far exceeds even the deepest oceans, on Earth, although that in itself is not necessarily a limiting factor.

The surface temperature however is high enough to melt lead: any lifeform capable of surviving in that temperature would be of a non-carbon based model, which we still have yet to find evidence of.

It could be a possibility. There are many things yet to be discoverd in the universe.

If scientists are finding out whether we could live on Mars(and signs are not looking good) then what chance is there for us existing on Venus?

If scientists are finding out whether we could live on Mars(and signs are not looking good) then what chance is there for us existing on Venus?

I read somewhere that if we, as a planet were to begin colonizing venus with blue-green algaes, we could begin lessening greenhouse effects, and atmospheric pressure would go down, making the planet at least breathable to humans. I'm not too sure how much the atmospheric pressure would go down. Has anyone else read this? Let me know. Peace.

Recently some kind of anomaly has been discovered in the atmosphere surrounding Venus. I don't remember exactly, but I think it had something to do with the amount of CO2 present in the atmosphere. The only solution scientists have to to this anomaly, based upon present knowledge, is that there may be some kind of organism - similar to certain bacteria on earth - that produce this effect. These organism may have lived on the surface in the planets primordial stage, and then adapted to a life in the atmosphere as the oceans that once covered Venus vaporized.





[Edited on 2003-9-9 by EyesOfTheFuture]

In terms of terraforming Venus, my guess at dropping the atmospheric pressure would be to direct a rather large rock at Venus at an oblique angle. The impact blast wave at such an angle would literrally blow a large percentage of the atmosphere out into space (this is one of the leading theories of what happened to Mars).

At that point, indeed, it may be possible to begin atmospheric conversion with blue-green algae, although I dont know that there would be sufficient protection from UV radiation to allow it: IE, Venus may be so close that even if the atmosphere was reduced, there may be enoug UV to kill all algae.

If Venus is slightly smaller than the earth, how can it have a much denser atmosphere? I know it does, but now you guys have me wondering.

Originally posted by William One Sac
If Venus is slightly smaller than the earth, how can it have a much denser atmosphere? I know it does, but now you guys have me wondering.

Just off the cuff here, but I believe that Venus has a slightly higher average density than earth. Also, due to the extreme heat, it has been theorized that the vast majority of dissolved/trapped gasses in the planetary mantel have been outgassed, creating the dense atmosphere.

Ah, I see. thanks DR. I find this rather intriguing, a planetary conspiracy. I have known this about Venus for a long time, but I have never questioned it before, even though it seems intuitively wrong. Thanks for the response, if I can dig anything else up I will get back to you.

So Venus was once inhabitable and Mars has ice and microscopic fossils? That is three possibly habitable planets in a row. Seems a little too coincidental to me. Maybe this happened for a reason although it is possible that we are simply a one in a million occurrence (with the three planets and all). It sure would explain why the aliens are so dang interested in us.

I don't know if life could survive on Venus as it is now. Any known life that we know of on Earth or even ones we suspect on other planets need water. There used to be water on Mars and we still think there is water inside Europa. Thats why we think they could/can support life. Theres no water on Venus.

Think it should be noted, historically, that Venus was seen as a possible origin of UFOs before the Venera probes (what a name!) went there and, well, melted upon landing.

We forget that, at one time, Venus held our imaginations as much as Mars did -- and still does. Many of the early and proto-science fiction tales that were published involved alien life from Venus... Mars only began to edge out Venus in the collective imagination when Lowell published his theories on Martian 'canals' and Wells wrote the War of the Worlds.

Even up until Soviet and American probes showed that Venus was not (conventionally) habitable, some speculated that Venus was a steamy, tropic garden. Such speculation was taken seriously enough, by some, that, when various 'contactees' claimed that they had been visted by 'Venusians', in the 1950s, that some people out there believed their tales of sexy encounters in Eden type environments...

Still, being that this is a conspiracy site, I'm almost prompted to ask if what we know about Venus is true. Now, I'd like to be clear that I really do believe that Venus, in its current state, is absolutely uninhabitable. However, as many people on the board feel that the government has lied to us about structures on Mars, would it not be so hard to imagine that we were being told lies about Venus? In such a case, if Venus really was inhabited (or inhabitable), Mars would serve as a perfect red herring for a coverup.

Again, I'd like to emphasize that I believe that what we know about Venus is 'true'... However, I'd like to see if anyone else wonders about a 'Venusian Coverup', being that so many here believe in a Martian one!?

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
Still, being that this is a conspiracy site, I'm almost prompted to ask if what we know about Venus is true. Now, I'd like to be clear that I really do believe that Venus, in its current state, is absolutely uninhabitable. However, as many people on the board feel that the government has lied to us about structures on Mars, would it not be so hard to imagine that we were being told lies about Venus? In such a case, if Venus really was inhabited (or inhabitable), Mars would serve as a perfect red herring for a coverup.

Again, I'd like to emphasize that I believe that what we know about Venus is 'true'... However, I'd like to see if anyone else wonders about a 'Venusian Coverup', being that so many here believe in a Martian one!?

With the long-standing theory that the moon was hollow due to how seismic waves travel across it, and all the rumors of a base on the "dark side" that some people have nicknamed Luna, there is ample reason for any good conspiracy theorist to think our moon is a gigantic alien base. Even this planet has had that theory applied to it. Perhaps to an even greater degree than the moon.

Mars has lots of strange characteristics. The odd, possibly hollow Phobos moon, plus all the old astronomers broadcasting reports of seeing large straight lines across the surface of the planet. Plus all the recent weird geography seen and speculated upon.

Then there is Saturn. Where its been rumored that the moon Titan is a base to some extraterrestrials. Also odd is the weird gigantic ring orbiting objects that at least one doctor theorized on in the mid-80s as being artificial and probably some kind of gigantic mining equipment. This theory was later held to some positive degree by a 1996 Hubble view of Saturn that showed the same strange objects (which subsequently disappeared).

Why not throw Venus into the mix? I see no reason not to think that there is some kind of lifeform on it. Though probably non-native.