Venus has a dense atmosphere of 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen, causing extreme global warming with an average surface temperature of 461.85°C. Balloons filled with breathable air could float at 50-65 km above the surface, making it the most habitable region in the solar system outside of Earth. Venus lacks its own magnetic field and has sulfuric acid clouds that reflect 75% of incoming light, making it difficult to observe the surface until radar pulses were transmitted in the 1970s.
Venus, the second planet from the Sun, has an atmosphere about 96 times denser at surface level than Earth’s. Venus’s atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen, which is thought to be similar to Earth’s atmosphere about 4.4 billion years ago. In the case of Earth, most of the carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the seas, precipitating out as carbonates, but Venus has no surface water or biomass to sequester the carbon dioxide, so it remains in the air.
Venus can be considered an extreme example of global warming, with an average surface temperature of 461.85°C (863°F). This is not only due to Venus’ proximity to the Sun, but also due to the “greenhouse effect” – the Sun may provide heat to Venus’s atmosphere, but it holds that heat due to the large amount of greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, acid sulfur – present. On Earth, which has an atmosphere 100 times less dense, more energy radiates.
Although the surface of Venus may be considered one of the most uninhabitable areas in the inner solar system, at about 50-65 km (31-40 mi) above the surface, the temperature and pressure of Venus’ atmosphere is similar to that of the earth’s atmosphere. Because the pressure is similar, balloons filled with breathable air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) float at this level as long as they remain structurally intact. Not only that, but the extremely slow rotation of the planet itself could be avoided. Equatorial clouds at this level circle the planet about once every 20 hours. A colony suspended here would be carried on the wind, experiencing a regular night and day, just like people who live on Earth. These factors have led some space scientists to call this region the most habitable in the solar system outside of Earth, surpassing Mars.
Since the planet lacks its own magnetic field, Venus’s atmosphere is constantly buffeted by the solar wind. The charged solar wind removes hydrogen, helium and oxygen atoms, producing a long magnetic tail composed of ions, which extends many planetary diameters behind Venus.
Venus’s atmosphere is filled with sulfuric acid clouds, which reflect 75% of incoming light. Their many layers have historically served to darken the surface of Venus, leaving humanity to speculate about the world below. Nothing was known about the surface of Venus until the 1970s, when radar pulses were transmitted to the planet from the Arecibo Observatory’s 300m radio telescope. This revealed surface features just 5 km (3 mi) wide.
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