A significant amount of gas, including carbon and oxygen, is being “siphoned” from the atmosphere of Venus, according to data from the BepiColombo spacecraft as it flies by the second planet from the Sun.
Venus is often referred to as the “evil twin” of Earth due to its nearly similar size but deadly characteristics.
Venus. (Image: NASA).
Venus is infamous for its atmosphere rich in toxic carbon dioxide (CO2), with surface temperatures reaching up to 470 degrees Celsius.
In the past, Venus likely contained a significant amount of CO2 on its surface. However, the second planet from the Sun is currently undergoing intense changes in its later stages.
Data transmitted by the BepiColombo spacecraft on its way to Mercury has detected that the upper atmosphere of Venus is leaking various gases, including carbon and oxygen.
The BepiColombo mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) aims to explore Mercury. The spacecraft had the opportunity to observe Venus for 90 minutes during its flyby.
“This is the first time we have observed positively charged ions of carbon ‘escaping’ from the atmosphere of Venus,” stated author Lina Hadid, a researcher at the Plasma Physics Laboratory in France.
Hadid’s team believes that this latest discovery could assist researchers in understanding why Earth’s sister planet has undergone a tragic evolutionary process and lost all its water, according to a report in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Future missions such as ESA’s Envision and NASA’s VERITAS orbiter will allow researchers to gather more detailed data about the environment on Venus, including its atmosphere.
