Venus inferno due to 'runaway greenhouse effect', say scientists

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Once styled as Earth's twin, Venus was transformed from a haven for water to a fiery hell by an unstoppable greenhouse effect, according to an investigation by the first space probe to visit our closest neighbour in more than a decade.

Like peas in a cosmic pod, the second and third rocks from the Sun came into being 4.5 billion years ago with nearly the same radius, mass, density and chemical composition.

But only one, Earth, developed an atmosphere conducive to life. The other, named with unwitting irony after the Roman goddess of love, is an inferno of carbon dioxide (CO2), its surface hot enough to melt steel.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Venus Express, orbiting its prey since April 2006, seeks to explain this astonishing divergence....