Venus likely had oceans in its early years, most experts agree, for a few hundred million to a couple of billion years, back when the sun was 30 percent less hot. In other words, even the water enthusiasts should agree that Venus was once a good candidate for life. “If you want to think about the best place, 4 billion years ago, to start life |in| this solar system, it would probably be Venus,” University of Washington palaeontologist Peter Ward told more than 800 colleagues at a panel at the American Museum of Natural History. As the sun grew more intense, carbon dioxide and water vapour trapped the heat, conditions spun out of control, the seas boiled off. Venus can be understood as a greenhouse-effect morality tale.

Don’t look for evidence of ancient Venusian life on the ground, though, because 700 million years ago a cataclysm occurred: Fissures opened all across the planet’s crust, and lava covered everything: a “global resurfacing event,” in the language of another researcher. Schulze Makuch’s, Palaeontologists looking for fossils on Venus after that catastrophe would be like a forensics team hunting for skid marks on road that’s been long paved over. To this day, lava flows regularly scorch the planet’s surface.

In the 19^th century, astronomers saw Venus as a bright orb, and imagined it to be a warm swamp world, much like a younger Earth. But by the early 20^th century, improved instruments and new knowledge of the long Venusian night caused scientists to doubt life could thrive there, despite superficial similarities to Earth in mass, gravity and size.

Probes were launched, beginning with Mariner 2 in 1962, and sent back information that didn’t, all the time, give hope to anyone looking for signs of life. Mariner’s flyby glimpse was enough to reveal Venus’ stifling carbon dioxide atmosphere. Regular volleys of flybys, orbiters, probes and landers followed, notably 1978’s Pioneer mission and 16 different Soviet Venera missions, many of which were predictably destroyed by either the planet’s crushing pressure or infernal temperatures, or some combination of the two. Each mission made the planet appear more foreboding than the last: The Pioneer mission confirmed a dense layer of corrosive sulphuric acid clouds 50 kilometers up, while Magellan in 1994 uncovered lava flows frying the planet’s surface. Yet buried within the glum reports are anomalies in the data that, some now claim, may be the first hidden glimpses of life on and above the planet.

1.   Which of the following is true?

      (1)  Planet Venus is an exact replica of Planet Earth.

      (2)  There is only a vague physical resemblance between Venus and Earth.

      (3)  No two physical features of Venus and Earth are same.

      (4)  Venus is another Earth in all aspects.

2.   Regarding the planet Venus.

      (A) its atmosphere is saturated with carbon dioxide.

      (B) it might have supported life in the past.

      (C) the atmospheric pressure and temperature seem to be too high for anything to survive.

      (D) there is evidence of lava flows regularly.

      (1)  Only A and B are true.

      (2)  A, B and D only are true.

      (3)  B, C and D only are true.

      (4)  all the above four statements hold good.

3.   Tag the correct partners:

      (1)  Mariner 2   (A) the surface of Venus

      (2)  Magellan    (B) the clouds above Venus

      (3)  Pioneer     (C) the atmosphere of Venus.

      (1)  1 – B   (2)  1 – C   (3)  1 – C   (4)  1 – A

           2 – A         2 – B         2 – A         2 – B

           3 – C         3 – A         3 – B         3 – C

4.   Paleobiologists may have to look for evidence of life on Venus,

      (1)  on its surface.

      (2)  buried underneath its surface.

      (3)  through probes, arbiters etc.

      (4) only after establishing the fact that water once existed on its surface.