Venus wasnt always hell, scientists say. It may have had beaches.

It's possible that Venus and Earth once simultaneously existed as pleasant worlds hosting mild temperatures and oceans. Then, something went awry. In new research, planetary scientists simulated how Venusian conditions today — with pizza oven-like temperatures, a crushing atmosphere, and past evidence of widespread volcanism — came to be. The results suggest that Venus, over a series of massive volcanic outgassing events and other geologic changes, transitioned from an Earth-like world to the hellish land we see today. Even the longest-lived robot sent to Venus survived for just two hours. "It's hot enough to melt lead," Matthew Weller, a planetary geophysicist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who coauthored the new research, told Mashable. "It's a very unpleasant place to be." The study has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills. Venus and Earth, although they've taken two dramatically different climatic roads, are considered sibling planets. They're about the same size. They're made out of the same rocky stuff. They both dwell in the inner part of the solar system. So what happened? "You have these two planets sitting there, and then one spins off in another direction," Weller explained. We can't, of course, go back in time to find out why. Nor can we send geologists there to sleuth the Venusian past. But the researchers used advanced computer simulations — which created 3D spherical models of geologic activity on Venus— of how the hot rock convecting beneath the surface, called the mantle, broke Venus' crust and ultimately drove the harsh outcomes present today. "Venus basically baked itself," Weller said. "Venus basically baked itself." Running the models showed that a once temperate, Earth-like Venus experienced a series of "stairstep" events, wherein deep interior motions rupturing the crust allowed for volcanism to reach Venus' surface. This led to molt