Terraforming Venus

If humans ever colonize Venus, changing its harsh atmosphere would be a good idea

[On June 5, 2012, Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun, a rare astronomical phenomenon known as the "Transit of Venus" that will occur again in 105 years. This month, 13.7 Billion Years considers "Earth's twin," from the scientific study of the planet to its mythological underpinnings, with the series Second Rock from the Sun.]

In 1961, astronomer Carl Sagan offered the first serious proposal of the "terraforming" of Venus: engineering its environment so that it can sustain human habitation.

To make this possible, three major changes are required:

• Reduce the surface temperature, which is currently around 850°F (450°C)
• Remove the carbon dioxide atmosphere
• Add breathable oxygen to the atmosphere

In addition, the following two changes would be great to have:

• Shorten the planet's day/night light cycle from its current solar day length (about 116.75 Earth days)
• Establish a planetary magnetic field to protect against solar and cosmic radiation

Of course, engineering a planet's atmosphere to such a degree is way beyond humans' capability. Today, geoengineering the Earth's atmosphere to help stop the march of climate change is a hot area of scientific research, and still in its infancy. But who knows what might be in store far in the future? And in fact, humans are the only species in the history of Earth to have changed the global environment (though unintentionally, through global warming).

If humans are to survive their own skyrocketing overpopulation, then colonizing another celestial body, whether it's the Moon, Mars or Venus, will someday be an option that rises to the top.

"The concepts of interplanetary travel and terraforming are moving off the TV and movie screens, out of the books, and into our night sky," writes Lauren Chircus on Science 2.0.

"Imagine, one day your descendants may look at the Evening Star and see not you looking down on them, but their living cousins waving to them from the fertile promised lands of Venus."

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image: "A conceptual picture I made of Venus if it were terraformed. Notice the interesting cloud formations and that the planet has polar caps. I decided to show the planet this way after studying Venus' atmosphere. The two Hadley cells the planet has stop at 70 degrees north and south. So the polar regions are cut off from the warm air. Also the slow rotation of the planet causes the clouds to whip around the planet very fast, especially at the equator, to balance out the temperature difference between day and night sides of the planet." -- Daein Ballard, Wikimedia Commons