The greenhouse effect is a phenomenon that affects the flow of energy from the Sun to Earth, affecting the planet’s surface temperature and radiating it back into space. Three planets, including Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, demonstrate the dramatic changes in their conditions due to different levels of the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect occurs when certain gases accumulate in Earth’s atmosphere, such as methane, which can create pressure that determines the existence of liquid water on the surface, absorb and scatter light, create wind, weather, and climate, and interact with other planets. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, has a dense atmosphere that causes a greenhouse effect, resulting in extremely hot and cold surface temperatures.
Venus, the closest planet to the Sun, also has a greenhouse effect due to its 96% carbon dioxide atmosphere. However, Mercury is closer to the sun but does not have the necessary gravity to capture and hold gaseous molecules nearby. Venus has a thick atmosphere, while the Moon and Mercury have virtually no atmosphere at all.
Without the greenhouse effect, Earth’s average surface temperature remains at 470°C (878°F), higher than Mercury, even though it is farther from the sun. The greenhouse effect on Venus keeps its surface temperature at 470°C (878°F) higher than Mercury, even though it is farther from the sun.
📹 Closer to the earth, the star planet is getting🤯3D Special Effects | 3D Animation #shorts
What planet has no greenhouse effect?
Mars, unlike Venus, has a very low greenhouse effect and a thin atmosphere that cannot retain energy from the Sun. This results in extreme temperature contrasts between day and night and sun and shade. However, Mars was warmer in the past and had oceans, indicating a different atmosphere. Around 3600 million years ago, Mars evolved towards its current state. Mars Express will help answer the question of what triggered this significant climate change.
On Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, there is a moderate greenhouse effect due to high methane concentrations in its atmosphere. Astronomers have compared Titan to early Earth, suggesting it would be a suitable place for life if its surface temperature was not so cold.
Which planet has a greenhouse effect?
Venus, similar to Earth in size and mass, has a surface temperature of 460 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt lead. Its atmosphere is primarily composed of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Man-made emissions have caused a 30 percent increase in carbon dioxide concentrations since pre-industrial times. Project Scientist Hakan Svedhem, Project Scientist for ESA’s mission Venus Express, aims to understand why there is so much carbon dioxide in Venus’ atmosphere and why it evolved differently from Earth.
Venus will help understand extreme greenhouse effects, but it is not a good example of what Earth would be like due to human activities. Life on Earth would likely disappear before reaching even half of the concentrations on Venus.
Does Mercury have a greenhouse effect?
Mercury, closer to the sun, does not have a greenhouse effect due to its lack of an atmosphere and exosphere. A significant greenhouse effect requires a large amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Mars, however, has a greenhouse effect due to its thin atmosphere and low surface pressure. The greenhouse effect only raises temperatures by about 5 Kelvin. In the past, Mars’s atmosphere was thicker at higher temperatures, and it may have experienced a runaway greenhouse effect that heated the planet until it thinned and cooled.
Why is there no greenhouse effect on the Moon?
The Moon lacks an atmosphere due to its low mass, preventing it from retaining gases around it. The greenhouse effect is caused by water vapor (H20), produced by evaporation in plants, soil, and oceans, and a small amount emitted by volcanoes. Carbon dioxide (CO2), a natural gas, is generated by breathing, combustion, and volcanic eruptions. The ocean regulates the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, which can absorb large quantities.
Methane (CH4) is also a natural gas released by organic matter decomposition without oxygen, such as rotting in marshes, mangroves, Arctic thawed ground, and digestion in animal stomachs. Volcanic eruptions also release CH4.
What planet is 70% water?
About 70% of Earth’s surface is covered in water, due to our solar system’s “Goldilocks zone” position. This is crucial for the existence of water, as it is necessary for life and plays a significant role in our daily lives. However, the origin of water is still unknown, and scientists are actively researching how our planet became so wet. Understanding how water arrived on Earth is essential for understanding life’s evolution and the origin of life on Earth.
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Does the Moon affect global warming?
The removal of the Moon would result in significant alterations to the Earth’s climate, with notable changes in temperature and daylight patterns throughout the year. Additionally, the occurrence of ice ages would shift geographically, with different regions experiencing them at varying intervals. This could prove advantageous for humanity, as it would provide opportunities for adaptation and resilience.
Does Mercury pollute the air?
Mercury, a naturally occurring element, is a major contributor to global pollution due to human activities like mining and fossil fuel combustion. Mercury emitted into the air settles in water or land, where it can be washed into water by microorganisms. This toxic form, methylmercury, accumulates in fish, shellfish, and fish-eating animals. Most human exposure to mercury comes from eating contaminated fish and shellfish, both in the US and worldwide.
Most people have trace amounts of methylmercury in their tissues, but some communities consume more fish than the general population, potentially exposing them to greater mercury contamination. In-utero exposure to methylmercury may increase the risk of learning disabilities in over 75, 000 US newborns each year.
Does Mercury have any effect on Earth?
Mercury, a toxic metal, significantly impacts aquatic ecosystems, particularly those with large wetland areas. Its bioaccumulation and bioconcentration properties contribute to its toxicity. Bioaccumulation occurs when mercury accumulates within an organism’s body over time, while bioconcentration increases mercury concentrations in higher-level predators like fish, birds, minks, and otters. Even low mercury levels can contaminate entire food chains and make fish unsafe for human consumption, highlighting the need for effective pollution control measures.
Could you build a greenhouse on the Moon?
The greenhouse project aims to create greenhouses on the moon using regolith, a plentiful supply of moon dust, which is a unique material found on Earth. The moon is a place void of liquid water, wind, radiation, and temperature differences. The challenge lies in the absence of gravity, as seen in previous lunar landing images. The moon’s regolith, which is also found on Earth, is structured differently from the regolith on the moon, which is a common term for unconsolidated rock and dust. The greenhouse project aims to explore the potential of regolith in creating crop-friendly greenhouses on the moon.
Is Venus hotter than Mercury?
Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is hotter than Mercury due to its thick, thick atmosphere containing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen. These gases trap heat energy from the Sun, allowing it to pass through to the planet’s surface. This heat is then reflected and travels back towards space, but the gases trap it, causing it to heat up the atmosphere. This phenomenon is linked to global warming, as it occurs throughout the entire atmosphere. On the other hand, Mercury lacks an atmosphere due to its small size and lack of gravity, resulting in no way to maintain heat.
Which planet has the reverse greenhouse effect?
Mars may have experienced a runaway refrigerator effect, which is the opposite of a runaway greenhouse effect. This effect occurs when a runaway feedback process removes much carbon dioxide and water vapor from the atmosphere and cools the planet. Water condenses on the surface, leading to carbon dioxide dissolving and chemically binding to minerals. This reduces the greenhouse effect, lowering the temperature and causing more water to condense. The result was lower temperatures, with water being frozen as subsurface permafrost, leaving only a thin atmosphere.
The atmosphere of Venus, an example of a runaway greenhouse effect, is an example of a runaway greenhouse effect. The runaway greenhouse effect has implications for future climate change, geoengineering, and planetary atmospheres. Carbonic acid refers to carbon dioxide when dissolved in water. The runaway greenhouse effect has been studied extensively, with various studies examining the effects of runaway and moist greenhouse atmospheres on Earth and Venus.
The runaway greenhouse effect has been linked to the evolution of Earth and Venus, with the atmosphere and hydrosphere of one component-two phase systems under constant solar radiation. The runaway greenhouse effect has also been linked to the formation of habitable zones around main-sequence stars, with new estimates provided by the Astrophysical Journal.
In conclusion, Mars may have experienced a runaway refrigerator effect, where water condenses on the surface, leading to carbon dioxide dissolving and chemically binding to minerals. This reduced the greenhouse effect, lowered temperatures, and created a thin atmosphere. Future research should focus on understanding the impact of runaway greenhouse effects on Earth and other planets, as well as exploring the potential for future climate change and geoengineering applications.
The runaway greenhouse effect has been a topic of interest in the past, with various studies and studies examining the effects of this phenomenon on Earth and other planets. Some of the key findings include the existence of habitable zones around main sequence stars, the increase in insolation threshold for runaway greenhouse processes on Earth-like planets, the influence of degassing, tectonics, and magnetic fields on the divergent evolution of Earth and Venus, and the potential impact of degassing, tectonics, and magnetic fields on the atmosphere, climate, surface, interior, and near-space environment of Earth-like planets.
The runaway greenhouse effect has been linked to the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere of Venus, which has been observed to be wet due to the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen. This has led to concerns about the potential end-Permian extinction event, which could lead to the death of almost all life on Earth. Other studies have also explored the impact of degassing, tectonics, and magnetic fields on the planet’s surface temperature.
In the context of Mars, the changing spatial distribution of water flow charts has been found to be a major change in its greenhouse effect. This change has been attributed to the alteration in the spatial distribution of water flow charts, which has been a key factor in understanding the greenhouse effect on Mars.
In conclusion, the runaway greenhouse effect has been a significant topic of research and study, with various studies and studies exploring the effects of this phenomenon on Earth and other planets. The ongoing debate surrounding the impact of this phenomenon on our planets and the potential consequences of such changes is crucial for understanding the future of our solar system and the potential impacts of climate change on our planets.
📹 Why Venus and Mercury No Longer Have Moons
Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the two main reasons why Venus and Mercury do not …
(6:03) “The Earth’s tidal bulge leading the Moon and gradually accelerating it causing it to gradually recede away from Earth”. Presumably if the Moon was in a retrograde orbit around the Earth, the Moon would gradually decelerate and gradually spiral into the Earth. Presumably this tidal bulge happens on gas giants too and could be one of the reasons why we don’t see to many moons in retrograde orbit. Not to mention the objects being kicked in or out due to other orbital interactions.
Would love to learn more about the upper atmosphere of Venus. Venus is one of my favorite objects to look at with my telescope. I honestly feel that if any of these places in our on solar system is harboring life it is gonna be venution atmosphere. But I can’t say that and not mention Europa… Thanks for the shows I truly enjoy them all!!!
Good article with a explanation in layman’s terms, товариш. The one thing that I have been unable to understand, since I noticed it going on a few articles back, is how someone so polite and informative has a seemingly dedicated group of ~ a dozen or so people who come to each and every article to give them all a thumbs down.
Your articles are some of the best on YouTube and extremely informative an easy-to-follow. I thank you for the knowledge and the entertainment. I can’t watch real long ones usually past 10 minutes that’s just because I get kind of bored easy sometimes but it’s nothing against your articles every one of my watched I liked. Thanks again. PS I’ve also always wanted to know why the Moon is slowly moving away from Earth. This is the first article I’ve ever seen explain that and it makes total sense thank you so much. I always thought the gravity of the Moon and the Earth especially if the moon used to be a lot closer it would stay either locked or come closer to the Earth but this makes sense now. Again awesome thank you
Another wonderful article, from a wonderful person. I love showing your articles to any of my friend’s that have kids interested in space. You are my all time favorite website on YouTube. Even beating PBS Spacetime that comes in at number 2. One of my favorite parts of the day is when I can kick back, and learn what you have to teach me for the day. Keep up the amazing work Anton. I look forward to all the articles to come in the future. Stay safe wonderful person ❤❤❤
Hello wonderful Anton, This was a great article! Thank you very much for creating it. I never even thought that there might be a reason why Mercury and Venus didn’t have moons – believing it to just be an accident of history. Right now, run away global warming seems to be the predominant theory of why venus is so hot. It’s nice to know there are alternate theories to puzzle our minds – just as Richard Feinman liked to think of 6 different ways of looking at each problem, I find alternatives fascinating. Thanks again for these wonderful articles!
Thanks for explaining the moon deficit around our two inner planets. I thought it was something like that as far as proximity to the sun, but understanding the tidal effect is very cool. My hope is that we will find binary planets in the habitable zone. They may be tidally locked to each other but not to the star. If I have that right.
Mercury looks everything like and could even pass for our own moon, so could it have been that Mercury was actually Venus’ moon and that some sort of unknown cosmic event in the distant past caused Venus to loose its gravitational hold of it which resulted in it drifting off and forming its own orbit around the sun?
Regarding the slow spin rates of Venus and Mercury, isn’t it more probable that they formed through dust collimation, without any impacts from large external objects… Based on a bunch of finite element analyses I programmed (long long ago). Objects that form through dust collimation tend to have really long rotational periods. But objects formed through collisions of already large objects where the translational vectors had high inclinations, resulted in new larger objects with short rotational periods + excess mass ejected into a “slag corona” that eventually forms either one or two moons (depending on balance of mass distribution). I don’t think you need the presupposition of a global ocean to slow Venus down – all you need is a lack of collisions since it’s collimation from the stellar dust ring.
The theory of why Venus slowly rotates clockwise. Most solar system planets, except Uranus as well, rotate anticlockwise looking at their north pole). Relates to the inertia of the proto-planetary disk of the solar system, which also the majority of the planets orbit anticlockwise looking from the north pole of the sun (which also rotates anticlockwise). Rather than a global ocean slowing down the spin of Venus (which would not make it spin in the opposite direction), a theory that a very early protoplanetary Jupiter was not fixed into it’s orbit and moved in a more random orbit than where it currently settled to. In this process it came close to and disrupted the orbit of Venus, a near collision, causing it to change rotational direction. The near-collision interaction with Uranus was even more violent, causing the rotational axis of Uranus to keel over as well as to change to counter-rotation. Earth was affected as well. Not by direct interaction with Jupiter, but the random orbit interactions of Jupiter caused another Mars-size planetary body, Theia, to directly collide with the Earth, forming our moon.
A possible reason for Venus’ slow (and retrograde) rotation is drag caused by its thick atmosphere. Venus may have rotated much faster earlier in its history. Given that tidal deceleration is usually very slow, especially when the bodies are far apart, I don’t think it would be impossible for Venus to (still) have a moon.
Anton, do you believe that Luna is what was left over from the Earth’s original accretion disc; or do you think it’s possible that, as some astronomers have hypothesized, Luna was produced when Earth collided with its sister planet “Theia,” ejecting large amounts of rocky material into Earth’s orbit that eventually coalesced into a moon? I’ve always found the “Theia” hypothesis intriguing, but have wondered what hard evidence exists that Earth ever actually had a sister planet.
@Anton Could it be that the photos we have of Venus, below that dense atmosphere, were taken while a very low tide was on that moment, and it looked dry and desert, and any liquid high tide was on the other side of the planet, and we just missed it? A bit like an even extreme version of that water planet orbiting Gargantuan in Interstellar?
Venus would be a very good candidate for creating an artificial moon/huge space station around. First, it would give us a reason to actually build those floating cloud cities in its atmosphere. Second, it would give us a destination to put all that carbon that we sequester out of it’s atmosphere as we use it to build all sorts of carbon-based materials. Third, if there is a disaster on it, better there than above the Earth.
One thing I would like to know what if the Sun was in it’s dying phase and has expanded in Earth orbit but Earth now was pushed out and was captured by Jupiter as one of it’s moons would Earth be able to survive or would it be to dangerous? I absolutely love your website keep the great knowledge coming m8.
1. Thank you for answering a question I have wondered about since I was in the third grade! (Not sarcasm.) 2. Doesn’t the earth actually have around eight Phobos-like moons? 3. Aren’t the Moon and Charon more like binary planets? And wouldn’t a search for exoplanets with life probably require the existence of a binary planet system like Earth/Moon or Pluto/Charon? (They don’t seem to be that rare in our own solar system, so I would guess that they are pretty common everywhere.)
I think Anton misspoke when he said that Heliosphere is one-fifth or the radius of the orbit of the moon. That wouldn’t make sense. I think he meant that it is five times (ie. 1.5 million km, not 1.5km as he said). Also, isn’t the heliosphere not do to with the gravitational effect of the sun, rather it is defined by the extent to which its plasma reaches out around itself?
Yeah after taking a class covering orbital dynamics I have suspected that Venus’s hellscape environment around 750 million years ago since the conditions on Venus with a dense atmosphere and it would simultaneously be a natural cause for the global resurfacing of which there is some tentative evidence it might not have been completely uniform like you would expect from a collision with a large massive body. After all the tidal interactions slowing the planet as the Sun robs Venus of its rotational momentum and the moon’s orbital angular momentum would be transferred to the planet to compensate for the loss of rotational angular momentum it would sort of create conditions where you could have a moon last for billions of years slowly decaying. In that scenario a massive moon smashing back into the surface could both vaporize any oceans and re-volatilize sequestered carbon within the planets crust into the atmosphere also the heat injection into the planets upper interior could break down the thermal gradient which according to MHD dynamo theory could have been responsible for shutting of the planets magnetosphere in combination with the planets then tidally locked year. In that sense ~750 Ma seems like a realistic timescale. Plus there is some overlapping of error bars that could be compatible with around ~720 Ma when Earth underwent a fairly extreme global cooling event of which the cause is not conclusively known. Using the observed precedent of Kepler/Tess/other telescope transit dimming observations and the fairly convincing evidence of the Ordovician Meteor event with a dated major impact in the asteroid belt there is a nonzero chance that such a moon impact with Venus could have played a driving role in the Cryogenian snowball Earth event which set the stage for the emergence of complex multicellular life on Earth.
Could having a relatively heavy moon, like Pluto-Charon, prevent a planet from tidally locking to its star? Such that planets orbiting very close to their star (such as the planets around the nearby red dwarfs) could still have a day-night cycle. Or would the tidal forces from the star eventually break apart the moon from the planet?
I think that if Venus has a (proper) moon larger then a few hundreds of meters, we would have already seen it a long time ago. The maximum elongation of Venus is about 45° so searching the surroundings up to 1 million km of Venus can’t be a problem. But it could have a few co-orbitals as Earth has. Regarding Mercury, its hypothetical moon would probably undergo a tidal break up before colliding with Mercury, so we should probably look for crater chain(s) – catena(e). And even if the hypothetical moon was unusually rigid, the crater would probably be slightly elongated. Of course, it all depends on how large was the hypothetical moon we are talking about.
Anton, Life doesnt need to be Earth like to survive. This is a common misconception about life. Just because Venus is a hell hole for us, doesn’t mean its a hell hole for other types of life. Even here, on Earth, we have found bacteria that can survive the vacuum of space. Also, life doesn’t have to be carbon/water based.
Can anyone explain why at the extents of the solar system’s wind, IE the Heliopause the Voyager spacecrafts discovered dense hot plasma with temperatures around 53,000° F? If at that distance there is zero thermal energy from the sun how does the plasma remain so hot? I actually know the answer to this question because that’s what I predicted the voyager spacecrafts would discover.
An unlikely moon of Mercury “falling back” onto the surface and creating a crater (like Rembrandt 15% of the diameter) is so untenable as using it to explain why Mercury is not locked to the Sun. More than a dozen moons in our solar system hace larger craters (even 42% of that moon’s diameter) which are in fact tidally locked to its parent body. The list includes Mimas, Tethys, Phobos, Charon and the list goes on….
Eventually the moon will break out of Earth orbit and Drift Away do two things could happen it can drift away to the gravitational field of another planet and becoming a moon once again. Or it can begin its own rotational cycle around the Sun classifying it as a planet it’s too massive to be a dwarf planet. Just like the largest moon in the solar system Ganymede if it ever breaks out of Jupiter’s orbit it would be considered as a planet if we orbit around the sun
It seems like in most of these vids you mention something that makes me have a question about something else. Like, if some calamity befell Earth and all the water evaporated off the surface… Would that change the orbit of the moon? Or perhaps would it start to rotate (since Tidal lock(?) keeps the same side facing the Earth)?
So, just before finding your article I was in deep thought about very similar scenarios. I’m curious to know if it is possible that Mercury was once the moon of Venus. Then at some point it was taken from the orbit of Venus and placed into the orbit of the Sun. I wonder this because I am aware of our own moon distancing from the earth little by little every year and this has sparked my curiosity. I also wonder if by Venus losing its hypothetical moon, it somehow slowed its rotation, reversed its rotation, tilted its axis, and created a hostile and unstable environment. And if that hypothesis has any possibility of truth, could the same thing happen to earth? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Ever considered they don’t spin fast because they don’t have Moon’s instead of “they don’t have Moon’s because they don’t spin fast enough? Another thing talking of Moon’s is it possible Earths core is cooling because the Moon is now too far away it is not distorting our planet enough to create heat in our core?
Anton : I am interested in moons. I believe that our moon is what gives us life on Earth. If we give Mars a proper Moon it will have atmosphere and life also. Venus is a much bigger problem . It once had a moon and did have an atmosphere also, perhaps even life . If we gave Mars a proper Moon, Mars might be a place where Humans could flourish! If Venus had a Moon, perhaps Humans could flourish there also, but it seems a bigger problem to solve than Mars ! One other thing You brought up . Our Moon is Tidaly locked. What would happen to Earth if it were NOT . I think that if this were to happen the Moon would spin away from Earth, causing MASSIVE problems to our atmosphere killing all life on Earth Probably a good thing it IS tidal locked ! Do You agree with my theory ? Mike
Hermes was the name of the theoretical natural satellite of Mercury. But it was found never to exist. Thus the name, “Hermes,” will not be used for any natural satellite or planet in the Solar system. However, the name may still apply to an exoplanet someday. There is an asteroid that has that name that resides in the Solar system.
I have a question which I’m sure has been covered already but I’ll ask anyway. When I look at the moon through my telescope, why does it seem to have a kind of heat wave distortion like you see on a hot day in the distance? Does that have something to do with Earth’s atmosphere? Its in perfect focus just wavy.
I though that Mercury may have been Venus’s moon but at some point seperated over time. Also Venus would make a ideal terriform candidate: 1. Has almost the same mass as the Earth 2. Much loser to the Earth than Mars (short travel time). 3. Has ample Solar energy. Ideally Solar shields could be placed in Venus’s orbit to cool it down. Only downside is Venus lacks a magentic sheild. But perhaps if Mercury to be moved into Venus’s orbit, it might be possible to kick start Venuses Magnetic field. My guess it would take Humanity about 100K to 1M to fully teriform Venus for earth life. I don’t think Mars makes a good candidate because it too small to hold on to an atmosphere (long term), and its much weaker gravity would cause long term health issues for humans and most mammals. Not a lot of solar energy for growing food and Mar’s soil is highly contaminated with Perchlorates.
Mars moons what? Ahmm one of Mars moons is among the darkest objects in the Solar System, which suggests it’s not made up of the same material as Mars, and it orbits in the opposite direction as Mars rotation! This suggests that it was a captured asteroid. Not only that, they are extremely small and it’s also thought that when moons are the result of collisions the molten material would coalese into a more spherical shape. Perhaps I’m wrong? PS you forgot to mention that Venus spins in the opossite direction suggesting a catastrophic event.
Not bad. But… It is long past time that scientists recognize that the Moon does not really orbit the Earth. It orbits the Sun, and its orbit is perturbed by the Earth. NASA has already quietly recognized Pluto-Charon as a binary system. Charon is not a satellite of Pluto. Again, it is long past time for this information to be presented in popular media by scientists.
One must wonder if and when we find a Livable exo-planet without a moon? Then we need design our colonizing spacecraft to B.Y.O.M. Bring your own Moon. With a Moon core space ship upon arrival we could influence a tidally Locked exoplanet to begin spinning which is very important for advanced Life such as us! Imagine being the historic figure responsible for the spin of a formerly tidally locked planet. That would be EPIC as Wikipedia posts go! Ha!Ha! As a Terra-Forming engineer!
Earth will tell you everything, Study our planet. It’s a book of our creation. It’s like a map. When you figure out earth then you’ll figure out Mars. Mars is what I call a skin coloured planet. Then you’ll find out about the man in the moon, or the boy in the moon. Look from afar. Your eyes will see, then you’ll be awake. God bless.
(5:19) “The pull from the Moon causes the Earth to have two tidal bulges” … so far so good. (5:24) “One of them is formed by the attraction from the Moon. The other one is caused by so called inertia” … Bzzzz. Fail ! Kindly stick to a single frame of reference for your explanation of both tidal forces. Pick one, gravitational forces or inertia. Don’t mix them together. I don’t blame you as most US text books get this wrong too.