Re:NASA Study Reveals Venus Crust Surprise
by saalweachter on Tuesday May 13, 2025 @08:53PM
(#43979568)
Earth's oxygen rich atmosphere is really important here-- any free hydrogen can readily combine with the free hydrogen, decreasing the chance of any being loss.
Re:NASA Study Reveals Venus Crust Surprise
by andrewflnr on Wednesday May 14, 2025 @11:14AM
(#43985540)
According to that wiki article, the hydrogen was mostly lost in the form of water vapor. The hydrogen and oxygen in the magnetotail are in almost a perfect 2:1 ratio. At least,
> Currently the main ion types being lost are O+, H+ and He+. The ratio of hydrogen to oxygen losses is around 2 (i.e. almost stoichiometric for water) indicating the ongoing loss of water.
Also Earth didn't have an oxygenated atmosphere until relatively late, a couple billion years in, so I didn't know if that could be the thing that saved it.
Re:NASA Study Reveals Venus Crust Surprise
by saalweachter on Wednesday May 14, 2025 @12:06PM
(#43986174)
I don't have primary sources, unfortunately -- I'm recalling something I read in _Oxygen_, which I found reassuring. It said that, one of the benefits of our oxygen-rich atmosphere was that we would lose an insignificant amount of hydrogen/water over the next billion years. It's one of those things that doesn't actually matter to me in my daily life, but I still find comforting, so it's stuck with me.
[1] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere#/media/File:Solar_s...
[2] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape