Why has Venus lost its oceans but keep a thick , raging air ? The answer might be lie in in the subtle electromagnetic interaction in and around the satellite .
Venus has an electric steer in its upper atmosphere that is strong enough to accelerate the heavy ions from weewee speck to speeds outstanding than the planet ’s escape velocity , set up them into space .
“ It ’s awesome and shocking , ” said Glyn Collinson , previously at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory and now a scientist at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center , in astatement .
“ We never dreamt an electrical wind could be so sinewy that it can suck oxygen right on out of an atmosphere into blank space . This is something that definitely has to be on the checklist when we go looking for inhabitable planets around other hotshot . ”
Venus is very alike to Earth in term of its size and volume , but it has a much thicker atmosphere and a high surface temperature of 460 ° C ( 860 ° degree Fahrenheit ) . The atmosphere has importantly less piddle than Earth , between 10,000 and 100,000 times , and as the planet is think to have once had ocean , astronomers have often wondered where it all proceed . The solar current of air was the likely defendant , but the instruments aboardESA ’s Venus Expressshowed that the planetary electric field has a greater encroachment on Venus .
Every satellite with an atmosphere is surrounded by an electric orbit , which can help raise charged subatomic particle and ions , even to the breaker point that they go devoid from soberness . The team showed that Venus ’ electric field is much stronger than expected , at least five times Earth ’s . These event are published inGeophysical Research Letters .
“ The electric field of operation is started when electron are produced by sunlight polish off the atmosphere of Venus , ” Professor Andrew Coates , co - author of the study , severalise IFLScience .
“ These negatron can move very apace along the magnetic field of operations generated by the solar wind and doing so they pull the ions with them , so they make an electric puff . ”
This difference between Venus and Earth could reckon on Venus being closer to the Sun , and thus receiving more ultraviolet light than Earth , breaking more water molecules asunder . Although Venus loses such a bombastic fraction of flatulence , its aura remains thick .
“ Venus Express has found potential signs of active volcanism , ” added Coates . “ So , it could be that the ambience is being fill again by these volcanoes but only to then be lost into space . ”
Venus is not the only physical object in the Solar System losing stuff . Mars has lost most ofits atmosphere , and Saturn ’s moonlight Titan loses 7 metric tons ( 7.7 US tons ) per day .
“ All these aim in the Solar System , they are losing cloth from their atmosphere to space , ” say Coates . “ And we are trying to understand how this departure occurs . This is an authoritative mechanism of the atmospheric evolution of an object through time . ”
Understanding how planets turn a loss their atm is important not only for our Solar System but for exoplanets as well . If planet revolve other star are also losing fabric , this could sham their mental ability to host life history .
The thick Venusian atmosphere as seen in ultraviolet light in 1979 by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter . NSSDC Photo Gallery
