--- title: Scientists Discover Why Venus Lacks Water description: Venus has an "electric wind" strong enough to strip traces of water from its upper atmosphere canonical: https://time.com/4376511/electric-wind-nasa-venus/ author: Emma Ockerman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-21T20:32:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:44:39.819Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Discover Why Venus Lacks Water og:description: Potentially solving a longtime mystery og:url: https://time.com/4376511/electric-wind-nasa-venus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a1a646c55a2090/698898cbbc6cfc4db53dd7e5/venus-illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Illustration, planet Venus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Discover Why Venus Lacks Water twitter:description: Potentially solving a longtime mystery twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a1a646c55a2090/698898cbbc6cfc4db53dd7e5/venus-illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Electric Wind' May Be Why Venus Lacks Water > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Emma Ockerman](https://time.com/author/emma-ockerman/) ## Emma Ockerman Jun 21, 2016 8:32 PM UTC  Illustration of planet Venus Illustration of planet Venus Peter Bull Dorling Kindersley—Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley by [Emma Ockerman](https://time.com/author/emma-ockerman/) ## Emma Ockerman Jun 21, 2016 8:32 PM UTC Scientists have long wondered why [Venus](http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/06/24/why-you-should-be-really-really-glad-you-dont-live-on-venus/?iid=sr-link4)‘ atmosphere lacks water, and now they may have solved the mystery. Venus has an “electric wind” strong enough to strip traces of water from its upper atmosphere, according to a [statement released Monday ](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2016-06/agu-wc062016.php)by the NASA-funded researchers who worked on the[ European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission](http://www.esa.int/Our%5FActivities/Space%5FScience/Venus%5FExpress). [The planet](http://time.com/3941269/venus-jupiter-june-30-conjunction/?iid=sr-link1), similar to the Earth in size and gravity, [contains evidence that it previously had oceans](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1999792,00.html?iid=sr-link4). But due to its high surface temperatures of 860 degrees Fahrenheit, those oceans likely boiled away to steam, which would have left more significant traces of water in the planet’s atmosphere than are currently found. Now, though, scientists say it’s possible the “[electric wind” played a part in gradually eroding an “ocean’s worth of oxygen and water” from Venus’ atmosphere.](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/2016GL068327/asset/grl54302.pdf?v=1&t=ippk7m0f&s=63d7fe414365887e7f5e6e22a15d2806b6fb53c6) NASA described the wind as an electric field so strong it causes electrons to accelerate past the planet’s gravity, a phenomenon that could be caused by the planet’s proximity to the sun. “It’s amazing, shocking,” [Glyn Collinson, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center](http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/glyn.a.collinson), said in the statement. “We never dreamt an electric wind could be so powerful that it can suck oxygen right out of an atmosphere into space. This is something that has to be on the checklist when we go looking for habitable planets around other stars.” With knowledge about the electric wind,[ astronomers should be able to improve their estimates of the size and location of habitable zones ](http://time.com/3969886/nasa-discovers-earth-planet/?iid=sr-link9)near other stars. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4376511/electric-wind-nasa-venus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4376511/electric-wind-nasa-venus/"},"headline":"'Electric Wind' May Be Why Venus Lacks Water","datePublished":"2016-06-21T20:32:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:44:39.819Z","description":"Venus has an \"electric wind\" strong enough to strip traces of water from its upper atmosphere","url":"https://time.com/4376511/electric-wind-nasa-venus/","keywords":["Space","NASA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a1a646c55a2090/698898cbbc6cfc4db53dd7e5/venus-illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Emma Ockerman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/emma-ockerman/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a1a646c55a2090/698898cbbc6cfc4db53dd7e5/venus-illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Illustration, planet Venus","caption":"Illustration of planet Venus","creditText":"Peter Bull Dorling Kindersley—Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4376511/electric-wind-nasa-venus/","name":"'Electric Wind' May Be Why Venus Lacks Water"}}]}] ```