Related papers: The Venusian Chronicles
The availability of bioessential elements for "life as we know it", such as phosphorus (P) or possibly molybdenum (Mo), is expected to restrict the biological productivity of extraterrestrial biospheres. Here, we consider worlds with…
The similarity of Venus and Earth in bulk properties make Venus an appealing target for future colonization. Several proposals have been put forward for colonizing and even terraforming Venus despite the extreme conditions on the planet's…
Here, we evaluate our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, as an exemplar of the runaway greenhouse state that bounds the inner edge of the habitable zone. Despite its current hellish surface environment, Venus may once have been habitable…
Volcanism is a major and long-term source of volatile elements such as C and H to Earth's atmosphere, likely has been to Venus's atmosphere, and may be for exoplanets. Models simulating volcanic growth of atmospheres often make one of two…
Recognizing whether a planet can support life is a primary goal of future exoplanet spectral characterization missions, but past research on habitability assessment has largely ignored the vastly different conditions that have existed in…
Recently published ALMA observations suggest the presence of 20 ppb PH$_3$ in the upper clouds of Venus. This is an unexpected result, as PH$_3$ does not have a readily apparent source and should be rapidly photochemically destroyed…
The goals of the astrobiology community are focussed on developing a framework for the detection of biosignatures, or evidence thereof, on objects inside and outside of our solar system. A fundamental aspect of understanding the limits of…
Recent findings suggest Mars may have been a clement environment for the emergence of life, and may even have compared favorably to Earth in this regard. These findings have revived interest in the hypothesis that prebiotically important…
A self-consistent two-dimensional model is proposed to account for the transient mesospheric nighttime optical emissions associated to possible intra-cloud (IC) lightning occurring in the Venusian troposphere. The model calculates the…
Over 4 billion years ago, Earth is thought to have been a hazy world akin to Saturn's moon Titan. The organic hazes in the atmosphere at this time could contain a vast inventory of life's building blocks, and thus may have seeded warm…
This is a white paper submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. The deep atmosphere of Venus is largely unexplored and yet may harbor clues to the evolutionary pathways for a major silicate planet with implications…
New analysis is presented of the 1.1 mm wavelength absorption lines in Venus' atmosphere that suggested the presence of phosphine. We retrieve a sulphur dioxide observation from the JCMT archive that was simultaneous within a few days of…
The atmosphere of Venus is characterized by strong superrotation, in which the wind velocities at cloud heights are around 60 times faster than the surface rotation rate. The reasons for this strong superrotation are still not well…
The current Venus climate is largely regulated by globally-covered concentrated sulfuric acid clouds from binary condensation of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and water (H2O). To understand this complicated H2SO4-H2O gas-cloud system, previous…
At visible wavelengths, Venus appears serene and pale-yellow, but since the 1920s, observers have noted high-contrast features in the ultraviolet. These features track the about 4-day superrotation of the upper cloud deck and vary widely…
Compared to the diversity seen in exoplanets, Venus is a veritable astrophysical twin of the Earth, however its global cloud layer truncates features in transmission spectroscopy, masking its non-Earth-like nature. Observational indicators…
We study the amount, size distribution and material composition of (sub-)mic aerosol particles in the lower Venus atmosphere < 50 km. Our GGchem phase-equilibrium model predicts metal-chloride and metal-fluoride molecules to be present in…
Signs of lightning on Venus have long been sought, including by space missions and ground-based telescopes searching for optical flashes, plasma waves, or radio signatures. These efforts have yielded conflicting findings regarding the…
The current goals of the astrobiology community are focused on developing a framework for the detection of biosignatures, or evidence thereof, on objects inside and outside of our solar system. A fundamental aspect of understanding the…
A long-term goal of exoplanet studies is the identification and detection of biosignature gases. Beyond the most discussed biosignature gas O$_2$, only a handful of gases have been considered in detail. Here we evaluate phosphine (PH$_3$).…