Venus: Earth's Evil Twin

this video is brought to you by squarespace  whether it's your new profession or just a   lifelong passion start your journey  to website glory with squarespace   check out their amazing all in one platform  through the link below more on them in a bit it's the dark mirror image of our world an evil  twin nearly identical in size and mass that   somehow managed to evolve into an uninhabitable  hellscape the second brightest object in the night   sky venus has been an icon since ancient times the  morning star the only planet named after a goddess   a place where for decades we projected our hopes  of finding life beyond earth perhaps in the form   of humid swamplands alas when we finally got our  first look at venus it wasn't at a living world   but at a place even more inhospitable than mars  shrouded with clouds of searing acid blasted by   hurricane force winds and making a temperatures  hot enough to melt lead the second planet   is a vision from brugel's darkest nightmares  a place so inimical to life it would make even   los angeles seem livable yet venus is more than  just the planetary equivalent of an angry elder   god it's also a mystery billions of years ago  scientists think that venus looked like earth a   temperate water world with oceans that existed  for uncountable eons solving how it became the   nightmare that we see today could have staggering  implications for our own planet's future see not there in the morning sky easily visible  to the naked eye venus is almost a thing of poetry   the second brightest nighttime object after our  moon the planet has been beguiling humans since   the dawn of time a constant feature in myth and  in legend in the realm of science too venus has   drawn our eyes so similar is she to our own world  at 12 104 kilometers across venus is only a hair   smaller than earth in terms of mass too the second  planet is close about 82 percent that of earth   now compare this to our other rocky neighbor mars  planet only half earth size with a mere 15 percent   of its mass if the four terrestrial planets can  be said to be family then mercury and mars are   cousins at best while venus and earth are  basically twins at least that's how it looks   from a distance get closer to our sibling though  and your opinion might start to change rather than   a pair of weasley brothers earth and venus are  more like dr jekyll and mr hyde the first thing   to note about our world's evil twin is that she  has a strange orbit spinning through space at   a distance of 108 million kilometers from the sun  venus moves backwards on its journey traveling in   the opposite direction to every other planet  except snigger inducing uranus nor can venus   exactly be said to be spinning venus rotates  slowly so slowly it takes nearly eight earth   months for a single day to pass on venus this  creates a completely counter-intuitive situation   where a venusian day actually lasts longer than  a venusian year yet the oddness doesn't stop here   because it barely has a tilt venus lacks season so  your average day on planet 2 would start with the   sun rising in the west thanks to its backward  motion and then hanging in the sky for endless   unchanging months before finally sinking below  the eastern horizon and plunging you into months   of darkness and that's a darkness without even a  moon to light it since venus lacks any satellites   by the time the sun finally rose again you'd have  already celebrated your first year on venus malt   that you'd have really much to celebrate of all  the terrestrial planets venus is perhaps the only   one that seems to actively hate life while  mercury is blasted by proximity to the sun   and mars is cold and barren venus is what would  happen if god suddenly handed all duties over   to the angriest comments section from the upper  atmosphere all the way to the grounds with one   minor exception that we'll talk about later the  second planet is aggressively hostile to all known   forms of life made up of 95 carbon dioxide the  atmosphere itself is thick and suffocating further   down a dense layer of clouds occupies the space  between 45 to 70 kilometers above the surface   but those aren't the fluffy kind of clouds  that we get here on earth made of sulfuric   acid venus's clouds are so corrosive they couldn't  devour anything they touch even reinforced metal   would not last long up here a wind's blasted  hurricane force where you to take off your helmet   and sniff that wind the sulfur would smell like  rotten eggs effectively making it feel like you   were trapped inside a gigantic fart depressingly  this might be the highlight of your trip to venus   a scientific american memorably put it of our  twin's surface no matter which part you visited   you would die a quick but agonizing death thanks  to a runaway greenhouse effect venus traps heat   so effectively it's the hottest planet  in the solar system reaching temperatures   not even mercury can dream of on the ground the  air clocks in at 480 degrees celsius so hot the   acid rain from the clouds evaporates long before  it reaches the surface so hot the rocks give off   a dull near infrared glow that can be seen from  space interestingly without its greenhouse effect   venus would be more temperate around 90 degrees  celsius still too hot for humans but not beyond   other forms of life sadly the thick atmosphere  does more than keep the heat in it also creates   insane pressure on venus the surface pressure  is so intense it's equivalent to standing   under 1.6 kilometers of water far from an ideal  holiday destination yet despite all of this   nastiness there are plenty of scientists who'd  kill for a chance to examine the venetian surface   up close that's because ground level venus is  remarkably young the entire planet seems to have   been resurfaced perhaps as recently as 150 million  years ago no one knows quite how this happened   just as no one knows for sure if the planet's  thousands of volcanoes are still active although   there is good circumstantial evidence however the  greatest mystery about our cosmic twin isn't its   surface or whether it's volcanoes still go boom  it's how it got like this in the first place given   venus's outward similarities to earth a whole  lot of clever folk a whole lot of curious about   why our solar system isn't home to two inhabitable  planets especially since this evidence planet too   may have been inhabitable in the distant past  when nasa's pioneer probe visited in the late   1970s it reported back an atmosphere filled  with heavy water a form of regular water that   comes with an extra neutron added to its hydrogen  unlike h2o heavy water is less likely to evaporate   away into space leading scientists to suspect it's  been hanging around in the venusian atmosphere for   some time the most likely explanation this vapor  is all that remains of what were once planet-wide   oceans now what we're about to say comes with the  planet-sized caveat that it's based on incomplete   data compared to mars venus is almost woefully  understudied the future missions we'll be talking   about in the final chapter of today's video  are going to fill in the blanks but for now   we're relying on less than optimal models  to suss out the past that being said though   the folks at the goddard institute for space  studies have run some seriously complex computer   simulations and they think they've narrowed it  down to two possible stories one venus's oceans   never stood a chance or two that this was in fact  a living world right up until a moment of calamity   so let's start with theory number one that venus  was doomed from its very birth in this telling   venus formed in the inner solar system just like  earth two twins emerging from the darkness for   billions of years they even looked alike two  spheres riven with belching volcanoes and magma   oceans under heavy asteroid bombardment but  then their paths suddenly split further out   in the darkness earth began to settle down began  to cool the water vapor became seas churning with   complex chemicals chemicals that eventually gave  rise to life meanwhile venus was simply too close   to the sun to have a chance so near our parent  star venus never cooled enough to allow water   vapor to turn to liquid indeed it worked with the  carbon dioxide emitted by the volcanoes to create   the beginnings of the greenhouse effect that we  see today an effect that ensured the surface just   got hotter and hotter so that's theory number  one what we'll call the doomed venus scenario   but there's another theory too one that raises  all sorts of tantalizing possibilities according   to this tale our newborn sun brightened only  slowly in its infancy allowing venus time to cool   alongside earth that meant venus also gained what  earth did rivers lakes and oceans a water cycle   rainstorms great crashing waterfalls tumbling  over alien cliffs if this version is true then   there was a point around four billion years ago  when earth mars and venus all had surface oceans   not just one pale blue dot in space but rather  three now if you've watched our video on mars   you'll understand why this is quite so exciting  right now nasa is intently examining the red   planet the signs of microbial life that may have  formed in the deltas of ancient mars it's why   they sent the perseverance rover there why one  of the blockbuster missions of the next decade   will be to return the samples to earth for study  and here's the kicker mars is thought to have   supported surface water for a mere 500 million  years venus by contrast may have existed as an   ocean world for up to three billion given what we  know about the evolution of life on earth that's   plenty of time for microbes to have evolved  potentially even more complex creatures is the   tantalizing vision behind future exploration of  venus the idea that in the dim and distant past   two planets waltzed through the heavens together  each not just inhabitable but inhabited of course   this didn't last this theory assumes our twin  died when multiple supervolcanoes erupted in   the same time span belching out carbon dioxide  for thousands upon thousands of years until the   greenhouse effect took hold and venus warmed  herself to death we know on earth the volcanoes   played a part in all our mass extinctions sparring  the meteorite impact that chaot the dinosaurs   now it seems maybe venus was just unlucky  enough to suffer the biggest extinction event   of all impressively finding out which of these two  theories is true could have practical implications   we know that many of the exoplanets discovered so  far are rocky worlds the size of earth or venus   if we can discover why venus became hellscape it  might help us figure out how likely it is that   these exoplanets suffered the same fate whether  they are a bunch of potential earths potentially   hosting life or just a bunch of overheated  uninhabitable venuses well we say uninhabitable   but that might not be quite right because there's  one part of planet two that we've so far avoided   talking about a part that may just turn everything  we know about venus on its head the part   that incredibly may support life this is the age  of creation think about it everyone is out there   making something we're no longer just consuming  stuff online we're making it as well and you've   probably either got a great idea for a website  or a business yourself or you know someone who   does and when it's time to move that project  from your head to the screen in front of you   well that's where squarespace comes in it's the  perfect web tool to help you fashion the internet   into whatever you want it to be maybe the hands-on  type with lots of opinions and ideas about what   exactly your website should look like if so very  cool squarespace gives you all the customization   options you could ever 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and now back to today's video all right look we get it we just spent two  chapters banging on about how inimical to   life venus is and now we're doing the youtube  equivalent of a rug pull and saying but well   what if in our defense this isn't our fault  the majority of planetary scientists really   do think that venus has about as much life  in it as a guardian reader's dinner party   but a majority is not the same as everyone there  exists a minority of experts who believe microbial   creatures could still be living in venus's clouds  that's because venus does weird things at a   certain altitude after being a constant nightmare  of heat and acid and high pressure there's a   sudden thin band about 50 kilometers up where  things are basically kind of fine at this height   the scorching temperature drops between 30 and  70 celsius the pressure is equivalent to standing   at sea level on earth there's even water vapor  that hypothetical microorganisms could survive on   the best part this band of habitability extends  around the entire planet as a wise man once said   given the right conditions life uh finds a way  of course there's still the sulfuric acid to   worry about which exists at concentrations that  would kill any extremophile currently known at   the same time though we've had occasional glimpses  of evidence that might suggest something is indeed   living up there on their dedicated venus page nasa  goes into a lot of detail about the dark streaks   that exist in the sulphur clouds streaks that  don't seem to disperse in the powerful winds and   absorb ultraviolet radiation while they're almost  certainly some kind of weird natural effect some   astrobiologists think that they might be colonies  of microbes clinging together and living off the   water vapor the theory goes that these creatures  have a kind of chemical coating that stops the   acid from destroying them a coating that also  absorbs ultraviolet light to back up their claims   astrobiologists point to readings taken by some of  the soviet probes the probes found particles that   were roughly the same size as bacteria tend to be  on earth although they lacked the tools to report   if they really were microorganisms astrobiologists  also point to something far more controversial   something you might dimly remember from the  depths of the pandemic years the september 2020   announcement that scientists had discovered  in the venusian clouds a chemical signature   of life the story around this is kind of messy but  it goes something like this phosphine is a toxic   gas that's often a byproduct of lightning  and volcanism however it's also produced   by microbes when a team of scientists started  examining the gases in venus's atmosphere in the   late 2010s they found more phosphine that could  reasonably come from natural processes a lot more   what's more that phosphene was being constantly  replenished rather than breaking down in sunlight   this led to the exciting possibility that venus's  clouds are full of microbes expelling phosphine   as a waste product if that's the case then  these bacteria are likely the last remnants of   the life that swarmed and multiplied in venus's  water life that had no choice but to rise upward   and adapt as the surface became uninhabitable  when the study was published in 2020 it caused   a sensation the idea that after fruitless  decades searching on mars would find life   on venus it was just too juicy to resist sadly  it turned out the claims were kinda complicated   today just two years later the 2020 study is  unbelievably controversial many experts say   that the authors didn't detect phosphine at all  and instead simply misclassified sulfur dioxide   others think that maybe the phosphine is real  but that there just isn't enough water vapor   and there's way too much acid in venus's clouds  to even support the hardiest extremophiles at   the time of recording the argument is still  raging as it likely will until we actually   drop a specialized probe into venus's clouds and  find out for sure luckily such a scenario is far   from fanciful after all we humans have been  now exploring the second planet for decades over the last two decades mars has been  the golden boy of the planetary family   the one that gets all the orbiters rovers and  funky little robot helicopters so it can come as   a surprise to realize that this wasn't always the  case back when nasa was selecting the very first   planet to explore the probe they were not with  our warlike cousin but with venus launched in the   summer of 1962 mariner 2 holds a hallowed place in  the history of space exploration the first craft   to ever visit another planet they reached venus  on december 14th of that same year conducting   a 42-minute flyby that set the stage for every  probe since in that time it managed to transmit a   ream of data as impressive as it was heartbreaking  it was mariner 2 that confirmed what scientists   like carl sagan had long suspected that venus is  so brutally miserably hot that any lingering hopes   of alien swamps existing beneath its cloud tops  were definitively smashed combined with mariner   4 revealing how dead the surface of mars was just  two years later it was a body blow to everyone's   dreams of one day living in a real life version  of star trek still the probes to venus didn't   stop in large part because planet 2 now found  itself an unwitting flashpoint in the space race   even as they scrambled to put a man on the moon  the americans and soviets were likewise racing   to unlock the mysteries of venus it was a race the  soviets excelled at one in which they played usain   bolt to america's paul blart over the following  years moscow sent probe after probe to our cosmic   twin plenty of them scoring brand new firsts there  was venera 3 which became the first human craft   on another planet when it smashed into venus's  surface in 1966 destroying itself four years later   venera 7 executed a controlled landing becoming  the first probe to pull off a successful touchdown   on another world overall the ussr would spend the  1970s landing 10 probes on venus yet each time   the mission would run into an inevitable problem  not only was venus hostile to life it seemed to   delight in destroying spacecraft the hardest of  all venera 13 lasted a mere two hours before the   heat and pressure turned it into molten junk while  the veneer emissions managed to beam back some   images of the manusian's surface showing a blasted  rocky world boiling under a sickly yellow sky   the sheer brutal nature of venus made return  trips fools errands the final ever spacecraft   touched down on venus in 1985 survived less than  an hour which may be why nasa stopped trying to   replicate soviet successes and instead turned his  attention to orbiters probes that simply circle   an astronomical body taking readings orbiters  are great for both longer-term study and not   getting destroyed by extreme surface conditions  now that doesn't mean there weren't challenges   venus's clouds are so thick that any orbiter  requires seriously good radar to examine what   lies below them but it was a challenge nasa was  capable of meeting most spectacularly in the form   of magellan of all the probes sent to the second  planet magellan is the big one the technological   grand daddy for four years it flew high above  the cloud tops of venus mapping the surface   in what was then stunning detail returning images  of a hidden world unlike anything anyone had   expected when its mission finally ended in 1994  magellan was one of nasa's great success stories   for the first time it felt like we'd gotten to  meet earth's twin to understand her to witness   her silent volcanoes and vast fields of basalt in  awe sadly it was the same success that doomed any   hopes of america returning just as we were truly  discovering what a miserable toxic environment   venus offered nasa was making very different  discoveries about mars in 1996 scientists revealed   they discovered what appeared to be fossilized  microbes in a piece of martian meteorite named   alh 84001 although considered these days to have  been a false alarm the announcement nonetheless   touched off a mars craze one which saw mountains  of money directed toward the rovers and orbiters   now on the red planet hunting for signs  of ancient life with the spotlight firmly   moved to planet 4 it would be three long decades  before nasa considered going back to venus again in june 2021 a spell was finally broken a dark  spell that had been haunting the planetary science   community for years known as the venus curse  that spell had shattered endless dreams with   its evil simplicity every time a proposed mission  to the second planet had been submitted to nasa   it failed to get funding as 11 orbiters and  eight landers were sent to mars as projects   were pushed forward to visit pluto series  europa titan mercury jupiter saturn the sun and   more poor venus languished less a beloved twin and  more that crappy sibling that you just never call   that's not to say nobody was interested from 2006  to 2014 a european mission orbited our celestial   sister a year later a japanese probe  arrived but nasa just kept saying nope   notorious among venus fans this included the  2017 selection of two asteroid missions lucy   and psyche over a pair of dedicated venus probes  at that point it probably seemed like the curse   was never going to be lifted and then came  that warm june day a day when most headlines   were still dominated with covert case counts and  vaccination rates the day nasa unveiled twin picks   for its latest discovery class missions these are  cheapish projects with budgets up to 500 million   dollars and it turned out two venus probes had won  just like that planet two was sexy all over again   amazingly this wasn't the only good news for team  venus that month just two weeks later the european   space agency esa announced its own dedicated  mission this means that at the time of recording   we have three dedicated crafts in the pipeline  that we'll all visit venus in the next 12 years   and each one in its own way will utterly transform  our understanding of our sibling the first   to arrive will be nasa's veritas an incredibly  unconvincing anagram of venus emissivity radio   science insar topography and spectroscopy luckily  what it lacks in graceful naming it more than   makes up for with sheer technological awesomeness  from the moment it enters all but in the summer of   2028 veritas will be undertaking a mapping project  that will reveal venus's surface in detail so fine   it barely seems believable while they were  impressive back in the 90s magellan's images   are kind of blurry by modern standards veritas's  by contrast will drill down to a resolution   of 15 meters the equivalent of watching a movie  in 4k hd that you've previously only ever seen on   vhs this will give us the sort of highly detailed  surface map we already have the mars potentially   telling us all sorts of fascinating things  about venus formation especially when used   in conjunction with the esa's envision probe while  veritas will map the whole of venus in high detail   envision arriving in 2034 will only look  in detail at a handful of specific spots   but what detail instead of 15 meters envision's  radar will give a resolution of just one meter so   close that we'll likely be able to see the remains  of the old soviet probes to return to our analogy   this will be like taking a single scene from your  4k hd movie and watching it in imax the detail   will just be off the charts beyond that both  veritas and envision will measure the internal   structure of venus and both hunt for evidence  that venus once had surface oceans a positive   result could forever settle the debate over the  planet's past but while the orbiters are cool   it's the middle project that you should be most  excited about known as da davinci nasa's final   probe will arrive in 2031 between veritas and  envision and while it will include an orbiter   kitted out to study venus in infrared the really  awesome part is going to be the lander at some   point in 2032 da vinci is going to drop  a probe down into venus's atmosphere one   that's designed to uncover the secrets of those  possibly life-supporting clouds in a controlled   descent davinci will inhale all of the fumes  that venus has to offer analyzing them studying   them for things like noble gases for water vapor  for phosphene potentially even for signs of life   that done the probe will zip below the clouds  and swoop low taking the first highly detailed   pictures of the venusian surface since the last  soviet lander finally da vinci will touch down on   this blasted hellscape and spend its last hours  beaming back data on mineral composition before   at last succumbing to the heat and to the pressure  and with its death we should not only get the most   detailed up-close images of venus's surface we've  ever seen but also perhaps confirmation of extreme   microbial life in short this is an incredibly  exciting time for our celestial twin and   it could be about to get even more exciting right  now nasa's glenn research center is working on   something called llisse an extremely durable probe  that when completed should be able to survive on   the venusian surface not for hours or even days  but for two whole months just creating a piece   of kit that can withstand such heat and pressure  for so long is impressive more impressive though   is what a stationary probe could learn about  our sister planet over the course of 60 days and   while nasa currently has no plan to use it this  probe will be offered to partner nations to space   programs like those in europe japan or india that  may want to make use of it with veritas envision   and davinci making penis cool again someone will  hopefully take up the offer and so as this video   ends it does so on the threshold of a new era one  that will likely see our understanding of venus   evolved so much that everything we've just told  you will look hopelessly out of date in just 10   years time and that's a magical feeling a reminder  that for all of our ability to kill one another   and generally be a bit shitty humans are  also capable of amazing feats of unlocking   the secrets of our solar system we can only  hope that this is the beginning of a broader   venus renaissance one that will see us finally  reconnect with our estranged twin for good you

Channel: Geographics

Views: 548,905

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Id: ztmu__xo-vI

Length: 27min 37sec (1657 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 29 2022