What If We Terraformed Venus?

we've heard about terraforming the Moon and Mars as we attempt to colonize space but what about Venus if we did manage to terraform our neighbor one day it could look like this could we live here one day how different would it be from life on Earth this is what if and here's what would happen if we terraformed Venus believe it or not Earth and Venus are very similar at times Venus is even referred to as Earth's sister planet they're both roughly the same diameter have the same mass same gravity and are both made out of the same material a central iron core and a rocky mantle unfortunately the comparisons end there unlike Earth Venus is extremely hot has an incredibly dense atmosphere and toxic fumes on its surface what would we need to do to make it habitable scientists and astronomers have been theorizing how to terraform venus for over half a century the two biggest issues that need to be solved are the atmosphere and the temperature on Venus currently the surface of Venus is a sweltering 462 degrees hot enough to melt lead and the atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide is 93 times as heavy as Earth's one proposed way of altering Venus's atmosphere is to bomb with hydrogen hydrogen bombs when reacting with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would create graphite and water this would fall down to the planet's surface and cover 80 percent of it with oceans mind you there wouldn't be nearly as deep as Earth's oceans Venus would only have ten percent the amount of water that Earth has this would take a lot of hydrogen the only way we could get enough is if we were to harvest the resource from Jupiter or Saturn this approach would also require iron aerosol a material that can be mined from asteroids if all went according to plan the dense carbon dioxide atmosphere would be reduced to being just three times as heavy as Earth's [Music] that's manageable this would also help clear the clouds of sulfuric acid that hang over the planet okay the atmosphere is clear now what about the temperature one way to cool the surface is with solar shades a series of small spaceships or one large lens that would divert the Rays of the Sun these solar shades could be placed on the surface of the planet or in the atmosphere slowly working to cool down the planet and reduce radiation another issue that would need to be resolved before we started living on Venus in addition to solar shades NASA thinks that we could build floating cities above the clouds of Venus these would work as a safe living space as we learn and attempt to terraform the environment to cool the planet even more and to speed up the process cooling pipes could be put on the surface of the planet these pipes would take heat from the surface and bring it up to colder parts of the atmosphere now we have a suitable atmosphere a proper temperature and clean air but there's one other huge issue that humans might have if they move to Venus they'd have extremely long days and nights since Venus rotates once every 243 Earth days meaning a day on Venus is 5,800 hours long not to mention it's the only planet in our solar system to rotate clockwise meaning that it's extremely slow sunrise would happen in the West and sunsets would be in the east we could create the illusion of a 24-hour day cycle by using massive mirrors and having them rotate to reflect the Sun if this managed to work correctly Venus would feel just like home with maybe a touch less gravity after all this Venus would finally be habitable sure the planet would rotate differently and you'd get a different view of the Sun but it could be another place for humans to live scientists theorize that it could be a backup planet one day studying more about Venus could teach us something about Earth Venus suffers incredibly strong greenhouse effects the cause of its extreme temperatures and dense atmosphere by learning more about cooling this planet it may unlock the secrets to cooling our own and maybe make our home last even longer but that sounds like a story for another what if [Music]

Channel: What If

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Keywords: what if, what happens if, scifi, science documentary, what if scenario, what if facebook, scientific answers to hypothetical questions, crazy questions in science, biggest questions in science, planet venus, terraforming, terraforming other planets, life on venus, why can't we live on venus, why are we not going to venus, venus cloud cities, can we live on venus, can we terraform venus, is venus hotter than mercury, venus airships, venom of venus, cloud city, शुक्र

Id: Wd-RbXOktTs

Length: 4min 36sec (276 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2019