Did Venus Once Hold Water?

"..we believe Venus once had large volumes of water that have since escaped into space or been stripped away by the solar wind."

This sort of thing creeps me out: the idea of water being lost into space.

I wonder what sort of atmosphere would make a planet in Venus position actually habitable.

As an ignorant farmer I dare to raise the question:

Could it be that in the far past Venus orbit was more far from the sun,that probably an some thing like a passing comet caused to venus to come closer to the sun?

I was thinking the same thing, maybe planetary alignments or a colision in space or it could just be that they are wrong regardless it is not high on my vacation spot list.

Venus could possibly be returned to a habitable state with a few comets, some cyano-bacteria, and a little time. Impact three or four small comets on the surface angled to speed up planetary rotation, this will reactivate the magnetosphere. Seed the atmosphere with tailored cyano-bacteria, to convert the abundant carbon dioxide to oxygen, and with the water present in the atmosphere, from the comets, the bacteria will multiply enormously. As the carbon dioxide levels drop the bacteria (blue-green algae) will slow and reach an equilibrium. By my calculations, in approximately 300 years there could be a shirt sleeve environment, at least at the poles.

How's that for a second home for humanity?

Regards Dragon

I don't think Venus has a magnetosphere. Without one, the planet is left to the ravages of the solar wind - a dead zone.

Another freaky thing about Venus is it's lack of tectonic plates. Some astronomers theorize that once in a while, Venus' crust fractures and sinks collectively into the magma. Eventually, another surface is formed when the upper magma cools enough... Talk about nowhere to run!!!

What I have studied (admittedly not as much as I should have) suggests that a rotation speed higher than 243 days for a single "day" is necessary for the planets core to generate a magnetosphere.

You are quite correct that Venus has no magnetosphere at this time.

Moreover, a more rapid rotation coupled with the gravitational pull of the sun could possibly create an effect similar to the tectonic plate action of Earth, admittedly not as strong, because the Moon is also involved.

Just my opinion Dragon