Was Venus Once Habitable?
Venus may have had a stable climate for billions of years. Now, a new study is uncovering the possibility that a global resurfacing event, probably linked to volcanic activity, may have transformed the planet from an Earth-like climate to the 462 degree hot-house that we see today. Earth and Venus seem completely different. Earth is a lush, clement world teeming with life, while Venus is hellish, with its surface roasting at temperatures higher than those of a kitchen oven. But underneath it all the two planets share a number of striking similarities. They are nearly identical in size. The basic composition of Venus and Earth is very similar. One difference stands out, however -- Venus has very little water. Were the contents of Earth's oceans to be spread evenly across our world, they would create a layer 3 km deep. If you were to condense the water vapor in Venus' atmosphere onto its surface, it would create a global puddle just 3 cm deep. Something catastrophic happened on Venus and what caused this is still a mystery.
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The study's most likely scenario was not 1, but 2 massive early collisions, equal to or greater
than Earth's collision in which the Moon was formed.
The 2nd hit on Venus obliterated any chance the re-coalesced remains could ever resemble Earth.
And left it with the devastated rotational characteristics we see today.