Venus presents to us at its surface the exact landscape befitting for a Marvel Boss fight. Covered in yellow clouds of sulfuric acid with an atmosphere brimming with carbon dioxide, which encloses all heat and temperatures sore to levels where survivability of any form of life looks highly unlikely, rather impossible.
The second planet from the sun might have oceans of water trapped in the layer of the mantle below its crust, which could pour out as piping hot water vapour (steam) if we could crack it open, according to a recent study shared on a preprint server.
But, according to a recent study, the hell-like planet may have oceans. Yes, you read it right, oceans, trapped in the mantle layer below its crust. If the surface cracks open, this water will gush out in extremely hot steam. If this recent discovery can be practically verified, it would increase our understanding of other planets.
When rocky planets like the one we live on form, the primary planetary components, including the core, the hot mantle, and outer atmosphere, determine and regulate how a terrestrial planet’s atmosphere first forms and evolves over time when the plan is bombarded by more resource-rich meteors and other bodies, the iron-core forms, and a worldwide ocean of hot magma forms. Now, imagine the Earth being struck by a giant asteroid, and how the result is a colossal magma ocean that pours out through the ripped crust, like blood from a wound. This is roughly how planets are born.
“The shock degassing of substantial H2O (water vapour) from hydrated minerals to simulate impacts during planetary accretion motivated investigation of the blanketing effect of a steam atmosphere above the molten early Earth,” wrote the study authors. Researchers also studied the evolution of magma over time under different circumstances. They concluded that if a planet’s magma is exposed, it prevents roughly 75% of the water contained within it from escaping into the atmosphere. This process alone can slow down or avert the creation of oceans on a planet’s surface.
“Ultimately, the high solubility of H2O in magma oceans may enable its safe storage during the tumultuous phase of planet formation”, concluded the researchers in their study. While this doesn’t imply that water oceans will form on Venus, it still very clearly states that the storage of water in rocky planet’s mantle is inevitable; even an apocalypse claims all life on the surface in a jiffy.