Life on Venus?

14 Sep 2020 11:50 #2 by ScienceChic
Replied by ScienceChic on topic Life on Venus?
Intriguing if true! Considering we found life in geothermal vents here on Earth, it's certainly possible life could exist on Venus, although they are surmising it is fully airborne which adds another layer of uniqueness.

Astronomers may have found a signature of life on Venus
Evidence indicates phosphine, a gas associated with living organisms, is present in the habitable region of Venus’ atmosphere.
Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office
Publication Date: September 14, 2020

The search for life beyond Earth has largely revolved around our rocky red neighbor. NASA has launched multiple rovers over the years, with a new one currently en route, to sift through Mars’ dusty surface for signs of water and other hints of habitability.

Now, in a surprising twist, scientists at MIT, Cardiff University, and elsewhere have observed what may be signs of life in the clouds of our other, even closer planetary neighbor, Venus. While they have not found direct evidence of living organisms there, if their observation is indeed associated with life, it must be some sort of “aerial” life-form in Venus’ clouds — the only habitable portion of what is otherwise a scorched and inhospitable world. Their discovery and analysis is published today in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The astronomers, led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, detected in Venus’ atmosphere a spectral fingerprint, or light-based signature, of phosphine. MIT scientists have previously shown that if this stinky, poisonous gas were ever detected on a rocky, terrestrial planet, it could only be produced by a living organism there. The researchers made the detection using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory in Chile.


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15 Sep 2020 09:01 #3 by FredHayek
Replied by FredHayek on topic Life on Venus?
If this turns out to be true, that would be awesome. It would imply that life is common throughout the universe. But I am skeptical, very skeptical right now.
Maybe at one time Venus was much more hospitable, and the current life adapted as conditions got worse.

Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.

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