This is how Venus went from being a world abundant in water to a dry and uninhabitable one

Computer simulations provide a strong new solution to the puzzle of how Venus lost most of its water.

To the history of water on Venus It was missing a fundamental piece: that of how this planet lost huge amounts of the element, forever changing his astral physiognomy. But it seems that we already have a hypothesis with more solid foundations to solve the enigma.

Thanks to a study based on computer simulations, and published in the journal Naturea team of researchers from the University of Colorado (United States) discovered “that Hydrogen atoms from the planet’s atmosphere shoot into space through a process known as “dissociative recombination.”which causes Venus to lose approximately twice as much water per day compared to previous estimates,” reads the official statement from the institution.

Worlds that change

This work is extremely valuable to know How other planets in the Universe could be losing water. However, the case of Venus causes a great impact, since, as seen in the cited text, that world it is partially dry.

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It’s interesting to see that scientists are betting that, at some point, Venus received as much water as Earth. In a way, time could give us the last word on the matter, if some other planet replicates the conditions that led to the loss of the water.

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“We are trying to figure out what small changes occurred on each planet to take them to these very different states,” he said Eryn Cangiresearcher at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and co-author of the new article.