Venus Has an Ozone Layer Too, Space Probe Discovers

Artist's rendering of Venus Express. (Credit: ESA - D. Ducros)

Science Daily  — The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft has discovered an ozone layer high in the atmosphere of Venus. Comparing its properties with those of the equivalent layers on Earth and Mars will help astronomers refine their searches for life on other planets.

Venus Express made the discovery while watching stars seen right at the edge of the planet set through its atmosphere. Its SPICAV instrument analysed the starlight, looking for the characteristic fingerprints of gases in the atmosphere as they absorbed light at specific wavelengths.The results are being presented at the Joint Meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.

The ozone was detectable because it absorbed some of the ultraviolet from the starlight. Ozone is a molecule containing three oxygen atoms. According to computer models, the ozone on Venus is formed when sunlight breaks up carbon dioxide molecules, releasing oxygen atoms.

These atoms are then swept around to the nightside of the planet by winds in the atmosphere: they can then combine to form two-atom oxygen molecules, but also sometimes three-atom ozone molecules.

"This detection gives us an important constraint on understanding the chemistry of Venus' atmosphere," says Franck Montmessin, who led the research.

It may also offer a useful comparison for searching for life on other worlds. Ozone has only previously been detected in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. On Earth, it is of fundamental importance to life because it absorbs much of the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. Not only that, it is thought to have been generated by life itself in the first place.

The build-up of oxygen, and consequently ozone, in Earth's atmosphere began 2.4 billion years ago. Although the exact reasons for it are not entirely understood, microbes excreting oxygen as a waste gas must have played an important role.

Along with plant life, they continue to do so, constantly replenishing Earth's oxygen and ozone. As a result, some astrobiologists have suggested that the simultaneous presence of carbon dioxide, oxygen and ozone in an atmosphere could be used to tell whether there could be life on the planet.

This would allow future telescopes to target planets around other stars and assess their habitability. However, as these new results highlight, the amount of ozone is crucial.

The small amount of ozone in Mars' atmosphere has not been generated by life. There, it is the result of sunlight breaking up carbon dioxide molecules. Venus too, now supports this view of a modest ozone build-up by non-biological means. Its ozone layer sits at an altitude of 100 km, about four times higher in the atmosphere than Earth's and is a hundred to a thousand times less dense.

Theoretical work by astrobiologists suggests that a planet's ozone concentration must be 20%of Earth's value before life should be considered as a cause. These new results support that conclusion because Venus clearly remains below this threshold.

"We can use these new observations to test and refine the scenarios for the detection of life on other worlds," says Dr Montmessin.

Yet, even if there is no life on Venus, the detection of ozone there brings Venus a step closer to Earth and Mars. All three planets have an ozone layer.

"This ozone detection tells us a lot about the circulation and the chemistry of Venus' atmosphere" says Håkan Svedhem, ESA Project Scientist for the Venus Express mission. "Beyond that, it is yet more evidence of the fundamental similarity between the rocky planets, and shows the importance of studying Venus to understand them all."

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FIVE MUST HAVE BUDGETING BEST PRACTICES

Budgeting is key to any good business. Despite this fact, many are not well trained to handle this process or would rather not commit the time that it deserves. These best practices explain how important budgeting is and how a tight, successful budget can be maintained!

Alliancetac highlights…

• Budget issue: Budget development should be linked to corporate strategy
  The budget expresses how resources will be allocated and how progress will be measure. When the budget is linked to corporate strategy, all managers and employees have a clearer understanding of strategic goals. This leads to greater support for goals, better coordination of efforts, and, ultimately, to stronger companywide performance.
  Best budgeting practice: Make certain strategic goals are set goals before budgeting begins.  This not only makes it easier for budget developers at all levels, fewer budget revisions are required.  Budget development then becomes not only faster and less costly but also far less frustrating.

• Budget issue: Develop procedures to allocate resources strategically
  Competition for resources is inevitable.  Every business unit needs funding for both capital and operating expenses.  Because needs typically exceed actual resources available, resources must be allocated to support key strategies.
  Best budgeting practice: While it is often said that resource allocation is part science, part art, applying best practices can leads to better results.  One such practice is to give managers insight into the ways in which changes in one budget affect the other.  It is also important to develop measures such as the company’s weighted average cost of capital and the degree of risk involved in competing plans of action, the costs or advantages associated with deferring action, as well as factors such as expected developments in interest rates.  By monitoring the results of allocation efforts, companies can refine and improve their procedures.

• Budget issue: Avoid incentives strictly tied to meeting budget targets
  While is seems logical to evaluate managers primarily on how closely they hit budget targets, this can tempts managers to “win” by playing games with budget targets.  Such game playing isn’t always in the company’s best interest or ethical standards.
  Best budgeting practice: Make meeting budget targets secondary to other performance measures.  Business unit managers should be involved in identifying the measures that are most relevant for their operations. While some measures may be financial, other appropriate nonfinancial measures could include product defect rate, customer satisfaction ratings and others.

• Budget issue:  Understanding the budget process
  Strive to reduce budget complexity and streamline budgeting procedures by making certain all people with budget responsibilities understand the budget process.  This allows management to collect budget information, make allocation decisions, and communicate final targets in less time, at lower cost, and with less disruption to the company’s core activities.
  Best budgeting practice: Leading companies make sure that budget developers and their assistants are thoroughly trained on the process.  This budget training for managers, together with ongoing monitoring of information needs companywide, helps companies deliver the right information to managers.

• Budget issue: Ensure budgets accommodates changeBudgets that accommodate change help companies respond to competitive threats or opportunities more quickly and with greater precision.  Plus, knowing that budgets have some flexibility frees budget developers from the need to “pad” budgets to cover a wide variety of possibilities.  This leads to leaner, more realistic budgets.Best budgeting practice: While it is important that budgets not be revised to cover up for poor performance or poor planning, best practice companies choose to revise budgets rather than adhere to budgets that do not reflect current conditions.

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