Hi guys, I’m officially done collecting my archived works so from now on it’s all new st
Hi guys, I’m officially done collecting my archived works so from now on it’s all new stuff. Please feel free to message me, my life is so much easier when I have a prompt to follow. History and Background Tonight’s post is on Venus, the only planet other than Mercury without a moon. Venus is often referred to as Earth’s sister planet, as it has a similar size and hypothesized interior structure. Venus is named after the roman goddess and the symbol is typically linked with femininity, though in antiquity the element copper. Copper was often used in old mirrors, and is thought that these are linked to the goddess through the hand mirror she is often seen holding. This became used to denote Venus in equations or informal astronomy writing. Venusian surface Venus is one of the harshest environments of any planet in the solar system. It has an atmosphere made of mainly CO2, and a surface pressure of ~92x that of Earth. In the upper atmosphere it rains sulfuric acid, which never reaches the surface due to the unbelievably hot surface temperature of the planet (462 C or 863 F). Here’s a look at the interior structure: Surface Geology Venus also has partial plate tectonics, meaning there are plates that aren’t free to move around on the mantle (more rocky than plastic, like the Earth’s), and are partially glued together. Volcanism has slowed down drastically since the last global resurfacing event 300-600 million years ago. None of our probes have managed to hang out on Venus very long before bursting into flames so all of this data is from the brief glimpses we get into our sister planet. Venusian Atmosphere Venus has what’s called the runaway greenhouse effect. Basically Venus was once, a very long time ago just like Earth was at the time. Fortunately for us, much of our carbon became stored in rocks instead of being in a gaseous state in the atmosphere. Understanding Venus better could very well be understanding our own future if we allow our global warming to reach the point of no return that Venus reached. Terraforming/Colonization of Venus We currently do not have the technology to completely change the Venusian atmosphere in a way that would not only change the content (to nitrogen and oxygen) but also adjusting the pressure caused by the atmosphere to a manageable level. This requires so much precision, it’s not even funny. There have been theoretical proposals of “floating cities” in the Venusian atmosphere where the pressure and heat are less extreme. While theoretically could be done with aerostats, the amount of sulfuric acid at that height remains to be a problem. Here is an artists conception of what Venus would look like if the first possibility were implemented: -- source link
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