The Return to Venus and What It Means for Earth
Venus a control case for Earth? Who is trying to fool us right now? Venus is on average 108 Million km away from the Sun. Earth almost 150 Million km. You don’t think that an additional more than 40 Million km makes a difference? The effect of solar radiation decreases exponentially with additional distance. So venus always received a lot more solar energy than Earth did. That may have prevented microbial life from forming which in turn prevented CO2 from being stored in solids. The Venusian atmosphere is not subject to a greenhouse effect. Its subject to a lot more solar energy and has an atmosphere to spread it over the surface day and night. Mercury is closer still but has no atmosphere so it heats up on the dayside and freezes on the night side. Venus is not like Earth – and has never been.
