After all, there may be life on Venus.
On Monday, scientists revealed that they have detected a gas called phosphine in the acidic clouds of Venus. The presence of phosphine is an indicator that microbes may inhabit Earth’s inhospitable neighbor, Venus.
The researchers did not discover real life forms, but pointed out that on Earth, phosphine is produced by bacteria that thrive in oxygen-free environments. The international scientific team first detected phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawaii and confirmed it using the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile.
While this is a groundbreaking discovery, Carl Sagan predicted it first. In fact, he predicted it more than two years before humans reached the moon.
In March 1961, Sagan in an article published in Nature, called ‘The Planet Venus’, summarized how “recent observations shed light on the atmosphere, surface and possible biology of the nearest planet.”
“The planet Venus is surrounded by clouds that prevent telescopic examination of its surface. In the absence of direct observations, reasons have been adduced to propose a variety of different and mutually consistent surface conditions,” he explains in the paper.
On whether life would be possible on the planet, Sagan explains that, “No known terrestrial microorganism can survive more than a few minutes when exposed to 600 K; proteins are denatured, deoxyribonucleic acid is depolymerized and even small organic molecules dissociate. in short periods of time. Temperatures at the poles of Venus are probably no more
100 K cooler than the mean planetary temperature, and it seems pretty certain that terrestrial organisms deposited on the planet’s surface would die quickly. Therefore
there appears to be little danger of biological contamination of the surface of Venus. “
However, he adds that “conditions are much more favorable at higher altitudes, especially just below the cloud cover, and there is a clear possibility of biological contamination of Cytherean’s upper atmosphere. At such high temperatures and in the absence of water. liquid, it seems highly unlikely that indigenous surface organisms exist today.If life based on carbon-hydrogen-oxygen-nitrogen chemistry ever developed in the early history of Venus, it must have subsequently evolved to underground ecological niches or attrnospheric “.
In short, he meant that “if small amounts of minerals are stirred up into the clouds from the surface, it is not difficult to imagine an indigenous biology in the clouds of Venus.”
“Sagan’s work on Venus was formative, although few today remember its impact,” said Darby Dyar, chairman of NASA’s Venus Exploration Advisory Group. Mashable. “Her idea was prophetic, and it still makes sense today: between the hellish surface conditions on today’s Venus and the near void of outer space there must be a temperate region where life could continue to live.”
Which is exactly where the current ‘traces of life’ have been found: in the atmosphere.
Phosphine was observed at 20 parts per billion in the atmosphere of Venus, a minimal concentration. Greaves said the researchers examined possible non-biological sources such as volcanism, meteorites, lightning and various types of chemical reactions, but none seemed viable. Research continues to confirm the presence of life or find an alternative explanation.
Venus is the closest planetary neighbor to Earth. Similar in structure but slightly smaller than Earth, it is the second planet from the sun. Earth is the third. Venus is shrouded in a thick, toxic atmosphere that traps heat. Surface temperatures reach 880 degrees Fahrenheit (471 degrees Celsius), hot enough to melt lead.
On Earth, microorganisms in “anaerobic” environments – ecosystems that do not depend on oxygen – produce phosphine. These include sewer plants, swamps, rice fields, marshes, lake sediments, and the droppings and intestinal tracts of many animals. Phosphine also arises non-biologically in certain industrial settings.
To produce phosphine, terrestrial bacteria take phosphate from minerals or biological material and add hydrogen.
Venus should be hostile to phosphine. Its surface and atmosphere are rich in oxygen compounds that would react quickly with phosphine and destroy it.
“Something must be creating the phosphine on Venus as fast as it is being destroyed,” said study co-author Anita Richards, an astrophysicist associated with the University of Manchester in England.
While the only things confirmed so far are traces of life and not actual aliens, what the groundbreaking discovery now means is not that there is a 100% confirmed case of aliens, but at present, this is the only plausible one. answer that scientists have found so far.
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