Map of Venus if it has as much water as Earth

Venus’s Ishtar Terra, the size of Australia, would be its largest landmass as a water world.

Key Takeaways

Venus as a water world would feature large continents like Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra.
The map by Alexis Huet uses Venus’s real topography, visualizing it with Earth-like oceans.

Venus’s transformation into a water world would face challenges due to its extreme conditions.
Terraforming Venus might be harder than Mars but has advantages like Earth-like gravity.
The map inspires reflection on Venus’s past, its potential future, and humanity’s role in planetary habitability.

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Map with oceans and many small continents and islands. — Map depicting Venus’ surface as if it had oceans. Image via Alexis Huet/ Dragonite-2/ Reddit.

Reimagining Venus as a Water World

Venus, our neighboring planet, is one of the harshest environments in the solar system, with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead and a toxic, crushing atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. However, a viral map created by mathematician Alexis Huet imagines Venus as a water-covered world. Using Venus’s topography, the map portrays continents, islands, and oceans, offering a glimpse of what this planet might have looked like billions of years ago or could resemble in the distant future.

The map highlights two major continents on Venus. Ishtar Terra, located in the northern hemisphere, is comparable in size to Australia and contains Venus’s highest peak, Maxwell Montes. The equatorial region features Aphrodite Terra, a continent as large as South America stretched along the equator. Smaller islands and landforms scatter across the imagined oceans. While scientifically speculative, the map draws from radar data that penetrated Venus’s dense clouds to reveal its mountainous and flat regions.

False-color map of globe of Venus showing highs and lows of the landscape. — Alexis Huet’s map posted to Reddit is based on spacecraft data. Most of our information about what lies beneath the dense clouds of Venus was obtained by the Soviet space probe missions Venera 15 and 16 and by the American Pioneer Venus and Magellan spacecraft during the period 1978 to 1994. Today we have good information about 98% of the surface of Venus, according to this page from ESO. This map comes from NOAA’s Science on a Sphere. It’s a compilation of Venus radar data, showing Venus’ topography as it’s known today. NOAA wrote: “Most of Venus appears to be covered with gently rolling plains. Two areas rise up above the rest of the surface and are referred to as ‘continents.’”

False-color globe of Venus with many features labeled in green showing highs and lows on landscape. — This map of Venus is also via NOAA’s Science on a Sphere. It shows some named features on Venus today, as revealed by radar imaging.

The Science and Challenges of Terraforming Venus

Huet’s map represents an idealized vision rather than a realistic depiction. According to planetary scientist Paul Byrne, the surface shown lacks erosion and plate tectonics, which would shape continents differently if Venus had real oceans. Current Venus conditions make this scenario impossible; its extreme heat, pressure, and greenhouse effect prevent liquid water from existing.

Despite these challenges, scientists have long entertained ideas of terraforming Venus. Carl Sagan suggested seeding Venus’s clouds with algae in 1961, but the planet’s thick atmosphere rendered this unfeasible. Terraforming Venus would require reversing its runaway greenhouse effect by removing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, a colossal task needing advanced technology. However, Venus offers some advantages over Mars: it is similar to Earth in size and gravity, and cooling its atmosphere might be simpler than thickening Mars’s thin one.

Planet covered by nearly featureless pale pink and gray wispy clouds on black background. — Venus as seen in enhanced color by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft. Its surface cannot be seen with the eye alone. It’s completely covered with dense clouds. There’s a wonderful article about real images of Venus via Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft, at the Planetary Society blog. Akatsuki began orbiting Venus in 2015. The images were put through special processing and released in 2018.

Earth-like planet with white clouds, blue oceans, and dark green continents on black background. — Artist’s concept of what a terraformed Venus might look like, with Earth-like oceans, continents and clouds. Image via Ittiz/ Wikimedia Commons.

While transforming Venus into a water world is far from achievable, the map fuels imagination about its past habitability and potential future. Scientists believe Venus may have hosted oceans billions of years ago before its climate became a hostile furnace. By considering these possibilities, we can better understand planetary evolution and explore ways to preserve Earth’s habitability.