Hellish Venus-Like Planets May Be More Prevalent Than True ExoEarths

Preliminary results of a study presented at the recent European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna indicate that hellish Venus-type planets may be about twice as common as habitable planets that form with oceans.

Hellish Venus-Like Planets May Be More Prevalent Than True ExoEarths. Preliminary results of a study presented at the recent European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna indicate that hellish Venus-type planets may be about twice as common as habitable planets that form with oceans. Preliminary work demonstrates that it's quite plausible to form a carbon dioxide dominated atmosphere after a magma ocean phase of the planet's evolution, Sean Jordan, a postdoctoral fellow in exoplanet studies at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, told me at the recent EGU26 conference in Vienna. So, it's expected that that these atmospheres should be quite common, he says. As Jordan, the lead author of the study noted during his presentation, there are loads of rocky exoplanets since the galaxy is great at making rocks. And there are at least a few dozen th...