Hellish Venus may have lost its water quickly.

A recent study published in Nature suggests that Venus may have lost its water more quickly than previously thought, potentially allowing for the existence of oceans and conditions suitable for life for a longer period of time. The study identifies a new water-loss mechanism operating high in Venus's atmosphere that could have doubled the rate of water loss. This mechanism involves the splitting of water vapor and carbon dioxide by sunlight, creating hydrogen and carbon monoxide that would combine into an unstable ion called HCO+. The HCO+ ions would then break apart, allowing the hydrogen to escape into space. The researchers propose that this new mechanism, combined with previously modeled water-loss processes, could have enabled Venus to lose its water in half the time, around 600 million years. Understanding how Venus went from being habitable to uninhabitable is important for studying other rocky planets in the universe. [Extracted from the article]