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An international group of astronomers has found traces of phosphine on Venus, a discovery that could indicate the presence of life on the planet, given that phosphine production on Earth is closely linked to biological processes. The research has just been published in the scientific journal Nature astronomy and potentially describes one of the most important astronomical discoveries of recent times. However, the study authors are very cautious and more analysis and data collection will be needed to confirm whether or not there is life, as we know it, on Venus.
Venus is on average 170 million kilometers away from us, it is similar in size and mass to Earth, but it is a decidedly inhospitable place. Its atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide, which helps create a greenhouse effect unmatched in the solar system: Venus is the hottest planet in our vicinity. It is shrouded in very thick clouds, consisting mainly of sulfuric acid, which make it impossible to observe its surface from space.
Despite the high temperatures in the ground (averaging over 460 ° C) and the acidic composition of its dense atmosphere, starting in the late 1960s some astronomers (including popularizer Carl Sagan) have speculated that There may be life forms on Venus not on the surface, but in cloud layers about 60,000 meters above sea level, where atmospheric pressure and temperatures are most similar to those on Earth.
The hypothesis derives from the presence of some darker spots in the cloudy layers of Venus, which according to the researchers could be made up of gigantic colonies of bacteria, whose size increases and decreases during the Venusian year (and therefore the position of the planet). compared to the sun).
However, to date, finding confirmation or clues to these theories has been extremely difficult. In the past, space probes sent to the planet have not had very easy stays: some melted when they reached the surface, others did not detect anything that could suggest traces of life. In recent years, however, researchers have become more adept at observing from a distance, with telescopes, variations in the characteristics of the atmosphere and in the emission of particular gases.
The authors of the new research looked at several candidates and then focused on phosphine, a gas about which not much is known yet. We know that it exists and is detectable here on Earth, for example in swamps and feces, but researchers have not yet fully understood which species of bacteria produce it. However, it is clear that it only occurs in the presence of processes related to living beings, and this is a good indicator to look for traces of life on planets other than our own.
Observations to detect the presence of phosphine were made with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array radio telescopes in Chile and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii (United States), which detect the radio waves emitted by the celestial bodies towards which they point. After collecting a large amount of data, the researchers found a concentration that fluctuated between 5 and 20 parts per billion in the atmosphere of Venus, much more than the detectable average in Earth’s atmosphere.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so the authors of the investigation remain very cautious and invite not to reach definitive conclusions. Even if the data appears to be robust, it cannot be excluded that there were errors in the detections and that the observed gas is not really phosphine, but another compound present on Venus and not linked to possible life forms. The researchers write that it could be sulfur dioxide and that there can only be confirmation after further observations.
If it were phosphine, further study and analysis would be necessary to ensure that its production is derived from biological activities and not from other phenomena. To find out, it may be necessary to send new probes to Venus, a planet relatively close to our own, but so far quite neglected compared to the great efforts to analyze and explore Mars.
Confirming the presence of life forms on Venus would not only be revolutionary for our understanding of life and our existence in the Universe, but could also provide clues to the possibility that life forms have developed on many other planets. outside our solar system and that living beings, although in elemental forms, populate many more planets than previously imagined. To date there are no definitive answers, but it is precisely their lack that makes Venus even more interesting.
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