Oct 31,
2006
The Atmosphere of Venus
The expectations of
planetary scientists are based on the theory that planets
and moons formed from a primordial solar nebula.
"As we dig
deeper into the solar system, sifting for clues, one thing
we keep learning is that in planetary exploration,
expectation and discovery often have little correlation."
David H Grinspoon in "Venus Revealed."
When scientists
discovered rings of dust and gas around other stars, they
used the nebular theory to interpret the rings as "accretion
disks." Then they claimed the discovery confirmed the
theory. But there is no evidence that the rings around other
stars are "accretion disks." In fact the evidence suggests
that they are "expulsion disks:" Stars are regularly seen
ejecting matter.
However, fervent
belief fosters the habit of ignoring uncomfortable data and
doubtful assumptions. It seems, as Bertrand Russell wrote,
“What men want is not knowledge but certainty.” Because
scientific knowledge is necessarily provisional, certainty
can only be had through belief. While that remains so,
discovery will continue to confound expectations.
Some of the
loudest alarms that all is not well with the nebular theory
were sounded at Venus, with its hellish temperature and
crushing atmosphere. If the nebular model were correct, we
should expect a regular gradation of element and isotope
abundances in the planets and their atmospheres as we move
out from the Sun. The early Sun is supposed to have gone
through a phase of producing powerful stellar winds that
should have swept away the lightest elements such as
hydrogen and helium. But it cannot explain why the
deuterium/hydrogen ratio is 120 times higher on Venus than
on Earth. And the noble gases argon and neon are 50 to 100
times Earth's atmospheric abundances. Krypton is enriched 3
times and xenon is slightly enriched. The argon/krypton
ratio for Venus is 700:1, compared to 30:1 for the Earth.
These gases are thought to be primordial.
On Venus the
argon 40/argon 36 ratio is 1:1. On Earth the ratio is 400:1.
Argon 40 is thought to have accumulated from the decay of
crustal potassium 40 since the planet was formed.
Venera 12
carried the only experiment that actually collected cloud
particles and analysed them. It found that the most common
element in the clouds was chlorine! The clouds held 20 times
more chlorine than sulphur. Most of the mass of the clouds
was an unknown substance. "These results are so difficult to
reconcile with other measurements that American researchers
have tended to ignore or discount them, although no one has
explained why it should be in error,” wrote David Grinspoon
in "Venus Revealed."
The Venusian
atmosphere is very dry at 30 parts per million of water
vapor. And the water decreases in abundance by an order of
magnitude near the surface. This implies that the surface of
Venus is sucking up water at a rate that would remove it
from the atmosphere in a geological instant. This finding
was so outrageous that some scientists were prepared to
simply disbelieve the data! As Grinspoon remarked: “We had
gone there, more than once, and demanded an answer, and all
we got was a colossal riddle.”
All of these
discoveries were unexpected. Ad hoc stories have been
suggested to explain some of them. Others, like the
disappearing water, are simply ignored.
The Electric
Universe model expects diversity in planetary atmospheres
because they are formed in a process of electric discharge
ejection from a larger body – a gas giant or dwarf star.
Plasma discharges are an efficient means of segregating
elements and their isotopes based on their critical
ionisation velocities and atomic mass. This is the reason
for the separation of elemental colors in beautiful
planetary nebulae. A cosmic plasma discharge is also a
copious source of neutrons. Atoms that are bombarded by
these neutrons form short-lived radioactive elements. That
explains the puzzling presence of the decay products of such
elements in meteorites, which are debris from the planetary
birth process. The cosmic discharge is also powerful enough
to cause nuclear transformations.
The Electric
Universe model provides a simple way of understanding the
differences in atmospheric composition between Earth and
Venus. But it applies to Titan as well, where more
atmosphere puzzles were recently uncovered. Both Venus and
Titan are young planets, related by birth. Their atmospheres
are not yet in equilibrium – as shown by the destruction of
water near the Venusian surface and by the remnant of
methane in Titan’s atmosphere. The abundance of water on
Earth and water ice on many moons in the outer solar system
signals those bodies' earlier birth under electrical
conditions that were different from those of Venus and
Titan.
At first sight,
the atmospheric compositions of Titan and Venus appear too
dissimilar for them to be related: Titan's atmosphere is
predominantly nitrogen, but Venus's atmosphere is mostly
carbon dioxide. In the electrical model the difference is
superficial: Ancient records describe Venus going through a
prolonged and spectacular discharge phase following her
birth. And the nuclear energy difference between the
nitrogen molecule and the carbon monoxide molecule is quite
small. In the presence of the hot, iron-bearing surface of
Venus, acting as a catalyst, that planet’s nitrogen was
converted to carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide reacted
with water vapor at the hot surface, in a well-known
industrial process, to form carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The
hydrogen is found to be escaping in a steady stream from the
upper atmosphere. These steps are a very effective means to
remove hydrogen from water and to leave behind deuterium to
give the observed phenomenally high deuterium/hydrogen
ratio.
It seems the
process is still active today, giving rise to the
destruction of water vapor at the surface of Venus. The
electrical energy required is available in the more subdued
form of a glow discharge from high elevations. The glow
discharge forms a dense, conductive plasma coating, like a
sheet of metal over the highlands of Venus. It has given
rise to claims that Venusian mountains are topped with
“fool’s gold!”
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