Venus was Earth's twin until global warming

Scientists determine that Venus was very similar to Earth and allowed the creation of life until global warming dried up the planet * Interesting discovery of Venus Express: Lightning storms occur on Venus

Venus is in many ways a twin planet to Earth. It is close to us in mass and radius, and is also the nearest planetary neighbor. However, the conditions on the surface of the planet are very different in many aspects from ours. Its atmosphere is mainly composed of carbon dioxide, and its surface has higher temperatures and pressure than those on Earth.
So far, only traces of water have been found on the surface of the planet, although it seems that there was much more water in the past, perhaps even oceans similar to ours. The journal Nature devoted its new issue mainly to studies concerning the mysterious planet conducted by the European spacecraft Venus Express orbiting the surface of the planet.
These studies try to explain how the climatic conditions of two such similar planets developed in opposite directions. Among the topics examined are the greenhouse effect driven by carbon dioxide gas, erosion of the atmosphere by particles from the sun and radiation, the interaction between the surface and the atmosphere, and the wind cycle resulting from the different rotation rates of the two planets.
Venus, Earth and Mars – the three terrestrial planets with atmospheres that form one group within the inner solar system – share many common characteristics. The Earth and Venus, in particular, are close in size and looked similar at the time they formed and cooled, and then there was probably a very large amount of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and oceans of water flowing on Venus (and Mars).
Today the surface conditions on their surfaces are different as a result of an evolutionary process, which we are now trying to understand through measurements and building models of the shared processes with the help of data from spacecraft designed to survey the planets and their ecology.
Earth and Venus contained about the same amount of CO2. On Earth it accumulated in the form of carbon compounds (among others in the form of oil, coal, etc.) in the planet's crust, while on Venus the carbon exists mainly as a gas. The extreme climate on the surface of Venus, driven by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, reminds us that we must act vigorously to prevent a similar process from occurring on Earth.
Over 30 spacecraft have been launched to the planet Venus since the Americans launched Mariner 2 in 1962 - the first successful mission to another planet. The Soviet spacecraft Venera Vega and the American missions of the Pioneer Venus series in the years 1967-1992 were very important in establishing the scientific description of the composition and the physical and chemical conditions in the atmosphere.
Studies carried out by these spacecraft showed that the Nogaian atmosphere is full of corrosive gases and thick clouds, extreme activities and high-altitude winds, and complex cloud formation by the meteorological systems that surpass any terrestrial equivalent, as well as the storm system whose eyes are above each of the poles.

About a year ago, the European Space Agency sent its first mission to our nearest neighbor in the solar system to study the global air movement, the chemistry of the clouds, the mutual activity between the surface and the atmosphere from the chemical and physical point of view, including volcanic activities, processes of escape of substances into the atmosphere and the global energy balance, and of course the greenhouse effect On the surface, when all these together produce a climate completely different from that of the Earth.

Lightning storms plague the atmosphere of Venus
One of the many studies published in the current issue of Nature deals with a phenomenon similar to the one that occurs on Earth - lightning storm outbreaks on Venus.
For about 30 years, scientists have estimated that Venus has lightning activity, since evidence of electrical activity in the atmosphere was received in 1978. However, the researchers were not sure of this due to the interference these signals had.
Now the magnetic antenna aboard the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft has managed to provide evidence that Venus does indeed have thunderstorms. "We consider this to be the first solid evidence for the existence of lightning on Venus," says David Greenspon of the Denver Museum of Science and Nature at a press conference held Wednesday in Paris. "The findings are significant because lightning affects the chemistry of the atmosphere, so scientists can take them into account to understand the atmosphere and climate of Venus," he said.
The lightning moves from cloud to cloud at an altitude of about 55 kilometers, says Prof. S.T. Russell from the University of California, the lead researcher in the article that described the lightning in Venus and which is published as mentioned in the special issue of Nature dedicated to Venus.
Bursts of electrical energy from lightning are considered to be one of the causes of the creation of life on Earth. If there was ever something important to talk about Venus, it's its history and not its current situation," said Shawn Solomon from the Carnegie Institution in Washington, "its atmosphere is very uncomfortable."
The atmosphere of Venus is 100 times more compressed than that of the Earth, the temperature on its surface is close to 500 degrees Celsius and the clouds are acidic. "This makes it Earth's evil twin, but it's still a twin planet," Russell said.