Discovering what causes 'Earth 2' to make terrifying changes

The discovery of the "hidden death" on the twin planet has great significance for the future of Earth as well as the hunt for alien life.

According to Science Alert, the research team led by planetary scientist Michael Chaffin from the University of Colorado Boulder (USA) has solved an important part of the big puzzle: Why is Venus - the planet considered the perfect version? Earth's most proud - dehydrated?

Venus is also in the Goldilocks zone of life in the Solar System. Billions of years ago, the world on this planet was also full of water and had a temperate environment like Earth.

But over time, it gradually dried up and sank into the harsh greenhouse effect.

Venus currently (left) and in the past - (Photo: NASA).

"Venus currently has 100,000 times less water than Earth, even though it is essentially the same size and mass," Dr. Chaffin said.

New research points to a process called dissociative recombination, which causes Venus's hydrogen to leak into space, as a possible culprit.

It is the recombination of a molecule called HCO+ , a positive ion composed of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, formed through the combination of carbon dioxide, water and the loss of negatively charged electrons.

Research shows that when electrons recombine with molecules, hydrogen gas (H ₂ ) is formed, which is quickly separated from the combination and soars into space.

Without hydrogen around, water can no longer form.

This mechanism could explain the catastrophic loss of water in previous theories, neatly solving the problem of the difference between water on Earth and Venus.

"It's a bit difficult. This model requires quite a lot of HCO+ in the atmosphere of Venus, which has so far not been detected on this planet " - Dr. Chaffin informed.

But that's probably because we haven't thought to look for it yet, so no Venus probes have targeted this molecule. This could be addressed in design plans for future Venus missions.

According to research published in the journal Nature , the special chemical process on Venus also shows the fundamental differences that make a planet habitable and deadly.

That shows how lucky the Earth has been in the past, as well as predicting "uncertainties" that may arise in the future.

In addition, the results also show that the "death" HCO+ is something that needs attention in the atmospheres of exoplanets.

To date, NASA instruments have found more than 5,000 planets outside the Solar System, many located in the habitable zone of their parent star, about the size of Earth.

But scientists still need more factors to help screen more specifically for habitable planets, and HCO+ is a sign that a planet should be ruled out.