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A New Study Hints Possible Signs Of Life On Venus

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A New Study Hints Possible Signs Of Life On Venus
Venus image by NASA/JPL-Caltech via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Venus, the second planet from the Sun and the neighboring planet of the Earth, has always attracted the attention of astronomers. It shines very bright in the night sky and keeps inspiring writers and poets. Venus is also known as the ‘morning star’ or ‘evening star.’ It is not the same as North Star or Pole Star, but it actually shines brighter than the Pole Star. No wonder it attracts so much attention. And now, once again, Planet Venus has attracted massive attention worldwide after a recent study hinted at the possible signs of life in its atmosphere.

https://youtu.be/1CHLNLiJHzM

According to a new study published in ‘Nature Astronomy,’ a team of astronomers led by Cardiff University’s Professor Jane Greaves has announced the possible hints of life in the clouds of Venus. The astronomers have discovered molecules of phosphine gas in the clouds. The presence of Phosphine gas is considered a possible extraterrestrial biosignature in astrobiology.

The possibility of life on Venus always looked bleak due to the very high surface temperature. But it seems the thick clouds above the hot surface may provide a suitable condition for the microbes to survive.

In Hawaii, astronomers first detected phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Then confirmed the detection later with 45 telescopes of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.

Professor Greaves shared her experience,

“This was an experiment made out of pure curiosity, really – taking advantage of JCMT’s powerful technology, and thinking about future instruments. I thought we’d just be able to rule out extreme scenarios, like the clouds being stuffed full of organisms. When we got the first hints of phosphine in Venus’ spectrum, it was a shock!”,

as quoted in the Royal Astronomical Society article.

Phosphine (PH3) is a colorless, flammable, and toxic gas. The concentration of the phosphine gas on Venus is detected to be 20 parts per billion. Such concentration is not possible with known chemical processes.

Also, Venus lacks the very high temperatures and pressures to form phosphine the way Jupiter does; thus, another explanation for the presence of phosphine is needed. Thus it hints it may be getting produced by some kind of microbes.

According to Dr. Paul Rimmer of Cambridge University, the microbes on Venus seem to be very different from those on Earth, as the quantity of phosphine on Venus is much less than that created by the microbes on Earth.

Dr. Clara Sousa Silva from MIT comments,

“Finding phosphine on Venus was an unexpected bonus! The discovery raises many questions, such as how any organisms could survive. On Earth, some microbes can cope with up to about 5% of acid in their environment – but the clouds of Venus are almost entirely made of acid.”

The high clouds of Venus have a temperature of around 30 degrees but are highly acidic (about 90% sulphuric acid). Thus, it is generally considered an unsuitable atmosphere for microbes to survive. Hence this discovery demands more profound research to confirm the microbe theory.

Science Minister Amanda Solloway said:

“This discovery is immensely exciting, helping us increase our understanding of the universe and even whether there could be life on Venus. I am incredibly proud that this fascinating detection was led by some of the UK’s leading scientists and engineers using state of the art facilities built on our own soil.”

This extraterrestrial ‘aerial’ lifeform possibility has created new waves of interest in studying Venus further.

Venus was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft (American space probe Mariner 2 in 1962).

Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 was the first to land successfully on Venus in 1970. It had transmitted information to Earth for 53 minutes, including 20 minutes from the surface. It had found that the temperature at the surface of Venus was around 475-degree celsius. Venera 7 was the first to confirm that Venus was not suitable for humans to survive.

Several flyby probes were later sent that studied the planet and its atmosphere from a distance, such as Vega 1 (1985), Vega 2 (1985), Galileo (1990), Magellan (1994), Cassini–Huygens (1998), and MESSENGER (2006).

Then, Venus Express by the European Space Agency (ESA) entered orbit around Venus in April 2006. Venus Express’s mission ended in December 2014.

Currently, Japan’s Akatsuki (meaning ‘Dawn’), also known as Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO) (sent from Earth on 20 May 2010), is orbiting Venus and studying the stratification of the atmosphere and atmospheric dynamics and cloud physics. It is said to operate at least until the end of 2020.

Looking at the above study indicating the possible hints of life, we may expect more exploration projects centered around Venus in the near future by different space agencies.

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Vipul B
Vipul B
Lives in Maharashtra, India. Interested in so many things ranging from the law of attraction to the stock market, from sports to technology, and from nature to astronomy.
Living a life inspired mostly by gut instincts. Regular meditator.

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