Early Venus Habitable?

A new study using data from the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft now orbiting Venus suggests that extremely early in its history Venus may have had a substantial amounr of water-- perhaps even an ocean. If an ocean did indeed exist, it's also possible that life may have begun there.

Other scientists suggest that if water did ever exist in quantity on Venus, it likely existed in the atmosphere, not on the ground. That may not preclude life starting out, but an aerial genesis would be quite different from the liquid water-based event most scientists think happened on early Earth.

The study bases its suggestion on the Venus Express data that sees two hydrogen atoms escaping into space from Venus for every one oxygen atom. That ratio, of course, suggests water is the source of the atoms. While water molecules are likely too heavy and too slow to escape into space from Venus, radiation would break water down into its constituent parts, and those lighter elements do escape.