Scientists finally know why Venus is leaking water into space even today

Today, Venus is as hot as your pizza oven, even hotter than Mercury,which isthe closest to the Sun. But still,it’scalledEarth’stwin because of several reasons. The planet lies in the so-called"Goldilocks Zone"of the Sun, a narrow virtual ring where planets can hold water in a liquid state. Billions of years ago, Venus used to have as much water as Earth, an extremely crucial element for life to evolve. However, so far, scientists could not fully understand what led to the escape of this water to the solar system and how the planet transformed into a desert-like surface. But now, they may have solved this puzzle.

"We'retrying to figure out what little changes occurred on each planet to drive them into these vastly different states,”said Eryn Cangi, co-team leader and a scientist with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

How did Venus lose its water?

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Due to its proximity to the Sun, the sunlightis believedto have broken up water in its atmosphere into hydrogen and oxygen. The greater concentration of hydrogen in the atmosphere rapidly heated the planet,due to whichthe hydrogen escaped in a flow out to space.That’show this hydrodynamic escape stripped Venus of its water.

Butnot all water was lostin this process.It’slike dumping out a water bottle –there will still be a few drops leftat the bottom.

Venusstilllosingwater

Venus still holds some waterandthe wateris still leaking into the space. Scientists blamea process calledHCO⁺ dissociative recombination (DR) for this phenomenon. As per this theory, when gaseous HCO+ reacts with the electrons, a neutral carbon monoxide molecule, CO, and a hydrogen atom, H, are formed. This process energises the hydrogen atom, which can then exceed theplanet’sescape velocity and escape to space.

The DR process is likely to have taken place throughout thehistory of the planet, which explains why Venus is still losing water.

(With inputs from agencies)