Venus is not an ideal place to live. With surface temperatures reaching up to 475°C, which is hot enough to melt lead, and clouds of sulphuric acid in its atmosphere, it is far from habitable. However, Venus may have once been a more hospitable planet similar to Earth, before a runaway greenhouse effect transformed it into its current state.
In this episode of Dead Planets Society, hosts Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane explore the possibility of reversing the conditions on Venus and making it suitable for life. Planetary scientist Paul Byrne from Washington University in St. Louis joins them in this ambitious quest to fix Venus.
The first step towards transforming Venus is to address its dense and hot sulphur-filled atmosphere. While this is a challenging task, it is relatively easier compared to terraforming Mars due to Venus’ larger size. Possible methods to accomplish this include using technologies proposed for mitigating global warming on Earth or even employing a giant potato gun to shoot asteroids. The hosts’ choice of approach remains unknown, but one thing is certain: the impact of altering Venus will have consequences throughout the solar system. Additionally, relocating Venus to a cooler orbit farther from the sun to maintain its new climate will introduce further chaos.
Dead Planets Society is a podcast that explores unconventional ideas about manipulating the cosmos – from breaking the moon in half to causing a gravitational wave apocalypse – and examines their feasibility within the laws of physics.
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