Venus Losing Water at Twice Previous Estimates
Venus lost roughly twice as much water daily due to hydrogen atoms escaping into space through dissociative recombination.
Venus is the second planet in our solar system.
Image credit: NASA
Planetary scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered how Venus became so dry, with water losses occurring through a process called dissociative recombination, where hydrogen atoms in the atmosphere go whizzing into space. This process, driven by the molecule HCO+, may be responsible for Venus losing roughly twice as much water every day compared to previous estimates.