An analysis of Venus's atmosphere concludes that the planet was never home to life as we know it on Earth. As inhospitable as its lead-melting surface and sulphuric atmosphere now is, the world's past was no more amenable to survival: there simply wasn't enough water there for life to thrive.
"This doesn't completely rule out any life. It rules out Earth-like life," said Tereza Constantinou, first author of the research from the University of Cambridge. Constantinou's research is published in A dry Venusian interior constrained by atmospheric chemistry, in Nature. Here's the abstract, dryly to the point.
Venus's climatic history provides powerful constraints on the location of the inner edge of the liquid-water habitable zone. However, two very different histories of water on Venus have been proposed: one where Venus had a temperate climate for billions of years with surface liquid water and the other where a hot early Venus was never able to condense surface liquid water. Here we offer a constraint on Venus's climate history by inferring the water content of its interior. By calculating the present rate of atmospheric destruction of H2O, CO2 and OCS, which must be restored by volcanism to maintain atmospheric stability, we show that Venus's interior is dry. Venusian volcanic gases have at most a 6% water mole fraction, which is substantially drier than terrestrial magmas degassed at similar conditions. The dry interior is consistent with Venus ending its magma ocean epoch desiccated and thereafter having had a long-lived dry surface. Volcanic resupply to Venus's atmosphere, therefore, indicates that the planet has never been liquid-water habitable.
To this day, the only footage we have of Venus comes from the Soviet Venera probes, some of which managed to survive barely minutes in the horrific environment there.
The place isn't a great candidate for terraforming, either, and not just for the obvious reasons.
Previously: First asteroid found inside orbit of Venus: Caltech
