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New data from a retired NASA telescope suggests that there is atomic oxygen in the atmosphere of Venus. Although it’s been inferred before, this is the first direct detection on the planet’s day side., scientists say that oxygen is produced on the dayside of Venus by carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide decomposing as they’re subjected to sunlight. Circulation patterns on Venus then transport it to the night side, too.
The oxygen was found about 60 miles up in the Venusian atmosphere by researchers using NASA’s SOFIA, a Boeing 747SP with a 2.5-meter diameter telescope, in observations made in November 2021. SOFIA has since been retired.Rocky, a similar size to Earth and about the same distance from the sun, Venus also has a comparable amount of carbon. However, planetary scientists have known since the 1960s that modern Venus has thick, sulphuric acid clouds and an atmosphere 50 times denser than Earth’s.
Although scientists have wondered if Venus could have been habitable before a runaway greenhouse effect boiled away its water, doubt was cast on that by afrom the University of Chicago earlier this year. That study’s computer simulations sought to explain how Venus got its present-day atmosphere. They found very few ways for the planet to retain water and moderate temperatures for long enough for life to take hold.
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