Scientists from the University of Chicago in the USA have suggested that there may be oceans of liquid water on early Venus even before life appeared on Earth. Their findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The researchers developed a model that predicts the presence of an ocean on Venus, which takes into account parameters such as the ocean’s depth, as well as the rate at which oxygen is lost from the planet’s atmosphere and hydrosphere. Oxygen can evaporate into space and can also be spent on oxidation of reduced atmospheric particles, oxidation of lava, and oxidation of the surface layer of magma.

94,080 runs were performed and the parameters that most closely match the real atmosphere of Venus were determined. It turned out that several hundred runs (about 0.4 percent) are within an acceptable margin of error from the value of the parameters that determine the modern atmosphere of Venus.

Assuming a maximum ocean depth of 300 meters on the planet’s surface, the period of potential habitability on Venus should have ended about three billion years ago. At the same time, Venus was uninhabitable for 70 percent of its entire history, four times longer than previously estimated. Source