Searching for Synergies between Venus and Exoplanetary Worlds

Venus has long been of interest to humanity given its prominence in the night sky. With the development of the telescope and later multi-wavelength instrumentation and in-situ/orbiting spacecraft we have a detailed record of Venusian observations stretching back hundreds of years. This record of observations is only second to that of Mars and our own world Earth. These planets form most of the basis for our understanding of the formation and evolution of terrestrial worlds. On the other hand, extrasolar planetary exploration is in its infancy. Theoretical studies involving concepts like the liquid water habitable zone [1,2,3,4] pre-date the first exoplanetary discoveries (1992 for planets around pulsars [5], 1995 for planets around main sequence stars [6]), yet even these are only a few decades old. We discuss the synergies that exist between Venus and exoplanetary studies today and how they may inform each other to better understand the evolution of Venus and its exoplanetary cousins. This work is part of an International Space Science Institute sponsored collection of papers on the evolution of Venus submitted to Space Science Reviews. References: [1] Huang (1959) Am Sci. 47, 397. [2] Dole (1964) Habitable Planets for Man. Blaisdell, New York. [3] Shklovski & Sagan (1966) Intelligent Life in the Univers, Holden-Day, San Francisco [4] Hart (1978) Icarus 33, 23. [5] Wolszczan & Frail (1992) Nature 355, 145. [6] Mayor & Queloz (1995) Nature 378, 355