Peplowski and Lawrence say this new result underscores the caution researchers need when drawing conclusions about atmospheric data, especially with the growing interest in planetary atmospheres in other solar systems.
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Does this mean that we should be skeptical of consensus?
IIRC, the surface temperature on Venus is in the 800-900 degree range. Different gases react to temperatures in their own way, so it’s not unreasonable to expect that they might stratify into layers.
This article prompted me to find the account of the Russian probe that landed on Venus in 1970. I had forgotten about Venera 7. This is from wikipedia
“The parachute opened at a height of 60 km, and atmospheric testing began with results showing the atmosphere to be 97% carbon dioxide. The parachute was initially reefed down to 1.8 square meters, opening to 2.5 square meters 13 minutes later, when the reefing line melted as designed. Six minutes after the unreefing, the parachute started to fail, resulting in a descent more rapid than planned. The parachute eventually failed completely, and the probe entered a period of freefall. As a result, the lander struck the surface of Venus at about 16.5 m/s (37 mph)
The probe appeared to go silent on impact, but recording tapes kept rolling. A few weeks later, upon a review of the tapes by the radio astronomer Oleg Rzhiga, another 23 minutes of very weak signals were found on them. The spacecraft had landed on Venus, and probably bounced onto its side, leaving the medium gain antenna not aimed correctly for strong signal transmission to Earth.
The probe transmitted information to Earth for 53 minutes, which included about 20 minutes from the surface. It was found that the temperature at the surface of Venus was 475 °C (887 °F) ± 20 °C.”
It may be possible, within the next century or so, to start a “terraforming” of the atmosphere of Venus, by “seeding” it with several captured “dirty snowball” comets, steered to collide with the planet as it passes, and releasing airborne microorganisms to proceed with the transformation of the composition of the atmosphere, releasing the water to start its cycle of cooling the planet to a tolerable temperature range, and eventually forming oceans.
The real estate possibilities alone would be, like, opening up a whole new world.
But, but, but... this was settled science. How dare David Lawrence challenge it... how dare he!!! What an outrage.
It says “We have more women.”
It also says “Send more Chuck Berry. Send less Justin Bieber.”