Venus: The Making of an Uninhabitable World

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of studying Venus to understand the processes that lead to uninhabitable environments, aiding the search for biosignatures and understanding planetary habitability boundaries.

Contribution

It advocates for comprehensive modeling and in-situ exploration of Venus to better understand the formation of uninhabitable conditions and their implications for astrobiology.

Findings

Venus serves as a key example of uninhabitable worlds.

Modeling early atmospheres helps identify habitability boundaries.

Future missions are crucial for in-situ data collection.

Abstract

The goals of the astrobiology community are focussed on developing a framework for the detection of biosignatures, or evidence thereof, on objects inside and outside of our solar system. A fundamental aspect of understanding the limits of habitable environments and detectable signatures is the study of where the boundaries of such environments can occur. Thus, the need to study the creation, evolution, and frequency of hostile environments for habitability is an integral part of the astrobiology story. These provide the opportunity to understand the bifurcation, between habitable and uninhabitable. The archetype of such a planet is the Earth's sister planet, Venus, and provides a unique opportunity to explore the processes that created a completely uninhabitable environment and thus define the conditions that can rule out bio-related signatures. We advocate a continued comprehensive study of our sister planet, including models of early atmospheres, compositional abundances, and Venus-analog frequency analysis from current and future exoplanet data. Moreover, new missions to Venus to provide in-situ data are necessary.