ETH Zurich Study Sees Venus-Like Exoplanets Outnumbering Ocean Worlds 2-to-1

2 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · May 21

Preliminary ETH Zurich modeling presented at the EGU meeting suggests rocky planets with thick CO2 atmospheres may be about twice as common as planets that form liquid-water oceans.
The result comes from geochemical models of planets cooling from magma-ocean phases, which indicate dense CO2 atmospheres are easier to produce than ocean-bearing worlds that avoid runaway greenhouse heating.
No exoplanet with a confirmed Venus-like atmosphere has yet been identified, partly because many rocky planets orbit active red dwarfs whose radiation may strip atmospheres before telescopes can characterize them.
That makes Venus a crucial reference point, yet modern in-situ data are sparse: the last dedicated landers were Soviet Venera missions in the 1970s and 1980s, and confirmation of exo-Venuses could take decades.
The study remains unreviewed and preliminary, but it reinforces a broader implication: Earth-like worlds may be the rarer outcome while Venus-like planets could be the galactic norm.

Models predict Venus is common, but missions are cut. Can new telescopes alone confirm if Earth is the true cosmic rarity?

If hellish Venus-like worlds are the galactic norm, why are we canceling the missions needed to understand our own?