Colonization of Venus
Venus's atmosphere is made mostly out of carbon dioxide, which, after filtering from sulfuric acid, can be used to grow food. Because nitrogen and oxygen are lighter than the carbon-dioxide that makes the atmosphere, breathable-air-filled balloons will float at a height of about . At this height, the temperature is a manageable ; or if we could get higher (see ).
Atmosphere of Venus
Through studies of the present cloud structure and geology of the surface, combined with the fact that the luminosity of the Sun has increased by 25% since around 3.8 billion years ago, it is thought that the early environment of Venus was more like that of Earth with liquid water on the surface. At some point in the evolution of Venus, a runaway greenhouse effect occurred, leading to the current greenhouse-dominated atmosphere. The timing of this transition from Earthlike to Venuslike is not known, but is estimated to have occurred around 4 billion years ago. The runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and the rise of the levels of greenhouse gases that followed. Venus's atmosphere has therefore received a great deal of attention from those studying climate change on Earth.