Was Venus the First Habitable World of our Solar System?

Abstract

Present-day Venus is an inhospitable place with surface temperatures approaching 750K and an atmosphere over 90 times as thick as present day Earth's. Billions of years ago the picture may have been very different. We have created a suite of 3D climate simulations using topographic data from the Magellan mission, solar spectral irradiance estimates for 2.9 and 0.715 billion years ago, present day Venus orbital parameters, an ocean volume consistent with current theory and measurements, and an atmospheric composition estimated for early Venus. Using these parameters we find that such a world could have had moderate temperatures if Venus had a rotation period slower than about 16 Earth days, despite an incident solar flux 46-70% higher than modern Earth receives. At its current rotation period of 243 days, Venus's climate could have remained habitable until at least 715 million years ago if it hosted a shallow primordial ocean. These results demonstrate the vital role that rotation and topography play in understanding the climatic history of exoplanetary Venus-like worlds being discovered in the present epoch.

13 pages, 4 Figures, submitted to Geophysical Research Letters

References in corpus (5)

• Extreme Water Loss and Abiotic O${}_2$ Buildup On Planets Throughout the Habitable Zones of M Dwarfs
• Building Terrestrial Planets
• Warming early Mars with CO2 and H2
• Strong Dependence of the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone on Planetary Rotation Rate
• On the Frequency of Potential Venus Analogs from Kepler Data

Cited by in corpus (39)

• The Occurrence of Rocky Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Like Stars from Kepler Data
• Day-night cloud asymmetry prevents early oceans on Venus but not on Earth
• The L 98-59 System: Three Transiting, Terrestrial-Sized Planets Orbiting a Nearby M-dwarf
• Atmospheric Regimes and Trends on Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs
• Constraints on Climate and Habitability for Earth-like Exoplanets Determined from a General Circulation Model
• The atmospheric circulation and climate of terrestrial planets orbiting Sun-like and M-dwarf stars over a broad range of planetary parameters
• Risks for life on habitable planets from superflares of their host stars
• Photochemistry of Anoxic Abiotic Habitable Planet Atmospheres: Impact of New H${}_2$O Cross-Sections
• Ocean Dynamics and the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone for Tidally Locked Terrestrial Planets
• Solar System Physics for Exoplanet Research
• Carbonate-Silicate Cycle Predictions of Earth-like Planetary Climates and Testing the Habitable Zone Concept
• Production of Ammonia Makes Venusian Clouds Habitable and Explains Observed Cloud-Level Chemical Anomalies
• Was Venus Ever Habitable? Constraints from a Coupled Interior-Atmosphere-Redox Evolution Model
• The dehydration of water worlds via atmospheric losses
• Oxygen False Positives on Habitable Zone Planets Around Sun-Like Stars
• Venus Life Finder Missions Motivation and Summary
• Water Condensation Zones around Main Sequence Stars
• A Second Earth-Sized Planet in the Habitable Zone of the M Dwarf, TOI-700
• Synergies between Venus & Exoplanetary Observations
• The Demographics of Terrestrial Planets in the Venus Zone
• Mineral dust increases the habitability of terrestrial planets but confounds biomarker detection
• Early habitability and crustal decarbonation of a stagnant-lid Venus
• Detectability of Chlorofluorocarbons in the Atmospheres of Habitable M-dwarf Planets
• Finding the Needles in the Haystacks: High-Fidelity Models of the Modern and Archean Solar System for Simulating Exoplanet Observations
• How does Background Air Pressure Influence the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone for Tidally Locked Planets in a 3D View?
• Stability of 20 Biogenic Amino Acids in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Habitability of Venus' Clouds
• Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): IX. Assessing the Impact of Clouds on Atmospheric Retrievals at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths with a Venus-Twin Exoplanet
• Sporadic Spin-Orbit Variations in Compact Multi-planet Systems and their Influence on Exoplanet Climate
• Atmospheric Dynamics of a Near Tidally Locked Earth-Size Planet
• Revisiting the cosmic-ray induced Venusian radiation dose in the context of habitability
• Habitable Zone Boundaries for Circumbinary Planets
• Brightness modulations of our nearest terrestrial planet Venus reveal atmospheric super-rotation rather than surface features
• Climates of Warm Earth-Like Planets III: Fractional Habitability from a Water Cycle Perspective
• Polarized radiation and the Emergence of Biological Homochirality on Earth and Beyond
• Effects of Flux Variation on the Surface Temperatures of Earth-like Circumbinary Planets
• Impact of Planetary Parameters on Water Clouds Microphysics
• Influence of Biomass Emissions upon Habitability, Biosignatures and Detectability in Earth-like Atmospheres
• Impact sculpting of the early martian atmosphere
• Oceanic Superrotation on Tidally Locked Planets