Venus: Earth’s Evil Twin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lightning crackles in the atmosphere of Earth’s “evil twin” Venus, while the meager remnants of suspected bygone oceans continue to be whipped off the planet and lost to space, scientists said on Wednesday.
They unveiled a series of findings from the European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission to the planet closest to Earth not just in distance, but also in size.
Venus, the second planet from the Sun, and Earth, the third, started out as virtual twins, according to scientists.
But at some point in their 4.5-billion-year histories, something went horribly wrong on Venus. The greenhouse effect ran amok, making Venus a hellish kiln — its surface hot and dry, its crushing atmosphere made up of carbon dioxide permeated by clouds of sulfuric acid that cloak the planet.
