Study rules out the possibility of life on Venus

Study of the chemical composition of the atmosphere Venus showed that Earth’s closest planetary neighbor was never habitableas described in the article collected in Nature Astronomy.

Researchers from the British University of Cambridge found that Venus’s interior is ‘too dry’ so that at one time there may have been enough water on its surface to accommodate an ocean.

Their findings, based on a study of data provided by several instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope, show that the planet was likely a scorching and inhospitable world throughout its history.

To reach this conclusion, it was important to verify that the composition of the volcanic gases supporting the atmosphere of Venus They barely contain 6% water.which indicates that the interior of this planet, the source of the magma that releases these gases, is also dehydrated.

On Earth, volcanic eruptions are predominantly steam driven because The depths of our planet are rich in water.

“We won’t know for sure whether life can exist on Venus until we send probes later this decade, but it’s hard to imagine because life requires liquid water and there is none on this planet,” says one of the authors, Teresa Constantinou, a researcher at the University of Cambridge.

At the end of this decade, NASA DAVINCI Mission will be able to test and confirm whether Venus has always been a dry and inhospitable planet through a series of flybys and sending a probe to the surface.

The results could help astronomers focus on other exoplanetsoutside the solar system, it is most likely capable of supporting life, the authors note.