NATS 1570 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Solar Wind, Runaway Greenhouse Effect, Stellar Magnetic Field

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1570
• Professor: Mary- Helen Armour

Document Summary

Venus has a very thick atmosphere that is mostly carbon dioxide. It also has clouds that totally obscure most of the surface almost all of the time. Venus currently has no water, but may have had oceans in the past. Venus also, likely due to its very slow rotation has no detectable magnetic field. This slow rotation may also be the cause of a lack of detectable planetary magnetic field. Despite the fact that we believe venus has a core similar to earth"s we do not detect a magnetic field - might be because of how it rotates on this axis. The lack of a magnetic field leads to very different interactions at the top of the atmosphere with the solar wind. The impact of the solar wind on venu"s surface causes a loss of atmosphere, but may also have played a large role in how water disappeared from this planet.