Did Venus once have oceans? Why did Earth's nearest planetary neighbor become such a hellish world? And what can Venus teach us about potentially habitable planets elsewhere in the galaxy? Join us for a lecture by NASA JPL scientist Dr. Amy Hofmann as she discusses these topics and more. This presentation will be followed by a panel Q&A consisting of several astrophysicists  to answer your questions about astronomy, planetary science, and space. Timestamps and description below:

00:00 Start of Stream
00:07 Announcements
05:04 Introduction of Presenter
07:12 Venus Presentation
49:32 Venus Q&A
49:51 "Could Venus be made habitable?"
52:17 "Is there something like plate tectonics on Venus?"
52:48 "Could Mars have been habitable in the past?"
55:30 "Why does Venus spin clockwise and is a slow rotator?"
56:56 Intermission
1:03:08 Q&A Panel Introductions
1:05:03 "What happens to the DAVINCI probe at the end of the mission?"
1:06:32 "Why are the days on Venus longer than the years on Venus?"
1:08:54 "Does Venus have a magnetic field and how does it affect habitability?"
1:13:05 "How do we know that Venus is volcanically active?"
1:16:03 "How are the DAVINCI instruments tested before going to the crucible of Venus?"
1:18:43 "Why is the DAVINCI probe shaped the way it is?"
1:20:18 "How can we identify planetary water from outgassing vs comets?"
1:26:03 "How much heavier is heavy water than water and why is drinking it dangerous?"
1:28:52 "How do you rank the habitability of planets?"
1:33:32 "Are there plans to put relay satellites around Venus for future missions?"
1:37:12 "How do plate tectonics support the development of life?"
1:39:51 "How does DAVINCI compensate for the thickness of the Venusian atmosphere?"
1:43:00 "Will we change DAVINCI to account for insights from visiting Mercury?"
1:49:48 "What are the limiting factors to sending a probe to Mercury like DAVINCI?"
1:54:00 "What would be a follow-on mission to DAVINCI try to do?"
1:57:59 "Are there any indications of life on Venus?"
2:00:50 Concluding Remarks

Title: Back to Venus with NASA’s DAVINCI Mission
Lecture: Amy Hofmann
Abstract:
Despite sharing a similar mass, size, and orbital location with Earth, Venus remains a mystery to planetary scientists. Wrapped in a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, with surface pressures exceeding 90 bar and temperatures averaging ~870°F (~465°C), Venus exhibits extreme runaway greenhouse conditions whose evolution remains unresolved. Existing data even call into question whether Venus ever sustained liquid water oceans on its surface, and hence whether Venus could ever have been habitable. NASA’s upcoming DAVINCI mission will investigate Venus from above its cloud deck down to its surface to decipher how the planet and its massive atmosphere formed and evolved over the past 4.5 billion years. In this talk, we’ll explore how DAVINCI will investigate Venus’s atmosphere and surface, search for clues to its watery past, and help us understand the habitability of rocky planets beyond our Solar System.

Amy Hofmann: https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/h...