- In mid-September, astronomers announced that they were looking for a sign of possible microbial life on Venus: the presence of phosphine gas.
- The search requires some follow-up research. Luckily, the spacecraft happens to be flying through Venus on Wednesday night.
- The Bepi Colombo spacecraft will swing through the planet towards Mercury.
- One of its instruments will be able to confirm phosphine in the Venus atmosphere, but the chances are slim because the instrument will not be sensitive enough to detect low levels of phosphine.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
When Jorn Helbert learned that a team of astronomers had discovered phosphine gas on Venus, he became excited.
The phosphine that occurs naturally on Earth is made only by bacteria. Therefore, the presence of phosphine gas on Venus means the planet could save alien life.
But the German aerospace center’s planetary explorer, Helbert, was particularly pleased with the timing of the discovery. It just so happened that the spacecraft he was using for research, Bepi Colombo, was heading towards Venus at that very moment. What’s more, he had a tool on board that could potentially detect phosphine in the atmosphere of a superheated planet.
“It’s weird,” Halbert told Business Insider of the time. “Able to take [this] The data makes me very happy. ”
At the time of the publication of the Nature Study in mid-September, Bepi Colombo had only one month left from Venus. Now, his approach is approaching. It is scheduled to fly through the planet late Wednesday night, October 14, arriving at its nearest location at 11:58 p.m.
At its closest stage, Bepi Colombo will be about 6,200 miles (10,000 km) away from Venus, which would be too far to get a good reading. The infrared instrument Hellbert has onboard, which is called Meritis for short, it is more suitable for Mercury, its final destination.
After running some tests with his team, Helbert said they decided they could measure the potential phosphine on the planet if Mertis is too much. The Nature article estimates that Venus’ atmosphere contained phosphine at only 20 parts per billion, which the Mertis instrument could not detect.
“Based on the calculations we have made so far, if phosphine is only at the report level [Nature] Article, we probably won’t find it, “Helbert said in an email to Business Insider.” If there is something significantly more we will be able to see it. “The level of phosphine should be somewhere in parts – million range,” he said.
An image of Venus, September 16, 2010.
NASA / Banco de Imgegens Geologics
Finds phosphine on Venus
The Mertis instrument, which measures the heat energy emitted by objects, was created to study the surface structure of Mercury. Different elements give different heat signatures, which the researchers then use to create images that Mertis uses.
“Basically what we’re looking for is heat coming from the earth,” Halbert said. “That’s why it’s weird for Mercury, because it’s a very hot planet with which the heat signature is good.”
Venus is also hot, but Martis is designed to detect minerals on the planet’s surface, not phosphine-like gases in Venus. And to take detailed infrared images of the atmosphere, a high-resolution instrument would be needed, Helbert said.
“For surface equipment, the Mertis have high resolution,” Halbert explained. “As for the atmosphere, its resolution is low.”
A mission to Mercury
The joint ESA-JAXA Bepi Colombo mission to Mercury will depart from the European spaceport in Cairo, French Guiana.
S. Korvaja / ESA
Ep Bepi Colombo started in October 2018. It has two satellites: the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Its mission is to tell these satellites to explore Mercury from different angles.
Bepi Colombo is scheduled to enter Mercury orbit in December 2025. Before that, however, it will have to slow down enough to be captured by the planet’s gravity. So it flies six times through Mercury – and before that, twice through Venus – using the gravitational forces of the planets to stop its motion.
If Hellbert’s team can’t find phosphine this week, they’ll have another chance soon: in August 2021, the spacecraft will fly through Venus again. At that point, the scientists behind the mission will have about a year, and they will be able to learn from that first flyby. Plus, Bepi Colombo will be closer to Venus next time – just 340 miles (550 km) away.
The team will have to take “very, very lucky” to find phosphine on the first flyby, Helbert previously told Forbes. “On the other one, we just have to be very lucky.”
