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A team of scientists has discovered a possible sign of life outside the Earth on Venus: in the dense acid clouds that cover our inhospitable neighbor of our planet, a gas, phosphine, was found, which suggests that it may be “inhabited” by germs .
Scientists have not discovered real life forms. However, they noted that on Earth, phosphine is produced by bacteria that thrive in oxygen-deprived environments. The international team first detected phosphine using the James Clark Maxwell telescope in Hawaii and confirmed the discovery using the Atacama radio telescope in Chile.
“I was really shocked, I was shocked,” said Jane Greaves, an astronomer at Cardiff University in Wales, lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The existence of extraterrestrial life has long been one of the key questions for scientists using robotic spacecraft and telescopes to search for “biosignatures” (indirect signs of life) on other planets and moons in our solar system and beyond.
“With what we know about Venus today, the most plausible explanation for the existence of phosphine is, unrealistic as it may sound, the existence of life on the planet,” said MIT astrophysicist Clara Sousa-Silva.
“I must emphasize that life, as an explanation for our discovery, must be, as always, the ultimate explanation. This is important because if it is phosphine and it is life, it means that we are not alone. “It also means that life itself must be very common and that there must be many other inhabited planets in our galaxy.”
Phosphine is an inorganic chemical compound of phosphorus and hydrogen, highly toxic to humans.
Telescopes, like the ones used in this study, help scientists study the chemical composition and other properties of celestial bodies.
For the presence of phosphine in Aphrodite’s atmosphere, Grevis and his colleagues looked at the possibility that it comes from other non-biological sources, such as volcanoes, meteorites, lightning bolts, and other chemical reactions. But neither explanation seemed logical. Research is underway to confirm the existence of life or to find an alternative explanation.
Venus is Earth’s closest neighbor. It has a similar structure but is slightly smaller than Earth. It is covered in a dense and toxic atmosphere that traps heat. For this reason, the temperature on its surface reaches 471 degrees Celsius, that is, it is so high that lead melts.
“I can only guess what kind of life can survive on Aphrodite, if there really is life there. No life form would survive on its surface, because it is completely inhospitable even to a completely different biochemistry than ours.” But long ago, Venus could to have had life on its surface, before a greenhouse effect left most of the planet uninhabitable, “said Sousa-Silva.
Some scientists suspected that clouds in the upper atmosphere of Venus, where the temperature is mild (around 30 degrees Celsius), may contain microbes that can withstand extreme acidic environments. The main component of these clouds is, in a percentage of 90%, sulfuric acid. The germs of the Earth would not tolerate such acidity.
“If they are microorganisms, then they should have access to sunlight and water and they can live in liquid droplets so they don’t dehydrate, but they would need an unknown mechanism to protect themselves from acid corrosion,” Graves explained.
On Earth, microorganisms in anaerobic environments (oxygen-based ecosystems) produce phosphine. Such environments are sewage treatment plants, swamps, rice paddies, swamps, as well as waste and the intestinal tracts of many animals.
To produce phosphine, terrestrial bacteria take phosphorus from mineral or biological materials and add hydrogen to it.
“We did our best to explain this discovery without resorting to a biological process. With our current knowledge of phosphine, Venus, and geochemistry, we cannot explain the presence of phosphine in the clouds of Venus. This does not mean there is life. It only means that phosphine is produced through some exotic process and that we have to go back to see what we know about Aphrodite ”, emphasized Clara Sousa-Silva.
The environment of Venus is at the same time “hostile” to phosphine. Its surface and atmosphere contain oxygen compounds that would react very quickly with phosphine and destroy it. “Something must be creating phosphine on Venus, as fast as it is destroying itself,” said Anita Richards, an astrophysicist who works with the University of Manchester.
In the past, robotic ships visited Venus, but now it may be necessary to organize a new mission to confirm the existence of life.
“Fortunately, Aphrodite is right next to us.” We can literally jump in there and control it, “Sousa-Silva said.
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