Life on Venus? Jupiter may have made Venus inhabitable

[Mike Wehner]

• New research suggests that Venus was once potentially habitable, but that likely changed when Jupiter swooped in and messed things up.
• Venus once had a much more elliptical orbit, allowing its surface to cool off for extended periods of time.
• When Jupiter pushed up closer to the Sun, it may have changed the orbit of Venus and caused it to remain scorching hot all the time.

There's been a lot of Venus in the news lately and for very good reason. Possible biosignatures were detected in the planet's atmosphere, hinting at the slim chance that life in some form exists on or above the planet's surface. But while we ponder what kind of life may exist there, researchers say that the planet probably had a good chance of being habitable if it weren't for Jupiter's influence.

In a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal, scientists from UC Riverside in California reveal that Jupiter likely played a big role in the current conditions we see on Venus. Had Jupiter not been involved, the planet might have ended up in a much more favorable location in our solar system.

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Life on Venus? Jupiter may have made Venus inhabitable originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2020 at 23:26:22 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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