Head of the Russian Space Agency: Venus is “Russian”

The head of the Russian State Space Agency, Dmitry Rogozin, claimed that Venus is “a Russian planet.” Rogozin said the country plans to send its special mission to Venus, which is the planned joint mission with the United States, which is called “Venera de”, according to the US network “CNN”.

Rogozin was addressing reporters at an international helicopter industry expo in Moscow and said: “The resumption of exploration of Venus is on our agenda … We believe that Venus is a Russian planet, so we should not stay behind”.

“The projects of the Venus missions are included in the unified government program for Russian space exploration for the period 2021-2030,” said Rogozin.

According to the European Space Agency, Russians have a lot of experience when it comes to Venus, as their website states: “Between 1967 and 1984. Flower studies conducted in Russia were at the forefront of international research on this planet,” according to “CNN”.

This statement came a day after scientists revealed the discovery of a gas called phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere, where researchers concluded that phosphine is emitted from living organisms within the cloud layers on Venus, in a discovery considered by the director of an agency. NASA is the “most important event” in the search for life outside of Earth.

Jane Graves, a professor of astronomy at the University of Cardiff in Great Britain and author of the study, whose results were published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, told the French press that this is the first time that this compound has been discovered on all four planets. terrestrial members of the solar system, “except on planet Earth.”

Phosphine was discovered by observing the atmosphere of Venus with the help of two radio telescopes. Its source may be “unknown pathways of photochemistry or terrestrial chemistry, or it may be similar to the biological pathway for phosphine production on Earth thanks to the presence of life.”

This compound is found in the gas giant planets of the solar system, such as Saturn, but does not have a biological origin, that is, from sources associated with life forms. As for the traces of phosphine in the earth’s atmosphere, it comes exclusively from organic or microbial activities.

Furthermore, the presence of phosphine, which is a highly toxic compound, does not conflict with the superheated atmosphere of the second closest planet to the sun. This planet, whose atmosphere consists of 97 percent carbon dioxide, is swimming at a surface temperature of around 470 degrees Celsius with a pressure ninety times greater than that found on Earth.

However, the phosphine molecules that the Graves-led research team concluded may be in the super-acid cloud layer around the planet at altitudes of up to 60 kilometers.

In this position, the temperature of the clouds is “modified” in the limits of 30 degrees Celsius, according to the study, which does not rule out the formation of the gas at a lower altitude and higher temperature before ascending to the top.

But where does this gas come from? In answer to this question, Graves hopes that the study “takes into account all the paths that would explain its existence in the atmosphere of Venus.” Among these hypotheses is the possibility that the gas comes from some form of life.

And if this hypothesis is correct, “we see that (this form of life) can be of a reduced size that allows it to float freely”, according to the researcher whose study highlighted that “the observation of phosphine is not solid evidence of the existence of life, but of a chemistry outside of nature. Interpretation of it ».

The study also notes that “the photochemistry of flower droplets (from sulfuric acid) is completely unknown.”

Phosphine is made up of one phosphorus atom and three hydrogen atoms. Phosphorus is one of the six chemical elements for the emergence of life, but its presence on Venus does not necessarily mean the existence of life, according to Graves.

Graves said: “Even if a planet contains phosphorus in large quantities, it may lack another element necessary for life, such as the presence of other elements, or because its environment is very hot or dry.”

NASA Administrator Jim Braidenstein was quick to welcome this discovery, calling it “the most important event” in the search for extraterrestrial life and calling for a diversion of the research from Mars to Venus.

“Life on Venus?” Braidenstein said in a tweet on Twitter. The discovery of phosphine is “the most important event yet in the search for life outside Earth.”

He added that “it is time to give priority to Venus” instead of Mars, which until today has focused most of the search for life outside of Earth.

In addition, the astronomer at the University of Swinburne in Australia, Alan Duffy, explained that the discovery of the scientific team led by Graves was “one of the most exciting signs that I have seen of the possible existence of life outside the Earth”.

Scientists agree that, in principle, the atmosphere of Venus is not suitable for the emergence of life due to “extreme levels of dehydration and super acidity.” However, this observation may not be true for planetary clouds.

And NASA discovered a decade ago traces of microbial life in the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere.

That’s why Greaves and his team call for a deeper look at the phenomenon. This happens in the best of cases by the release of the “filter” of the Earth’s atmosphere through a space telescope, with perhaps a new probe visit to Venus or its atmosphere.

And it seems that the return of interest in this long-forgotten planet has become a general trend, as two of the four competing missions in NASA’s next exploration program belong to Venus, according to the science director of the NASA. agency, Thomas Zurbuken. The selection process will be completed next year.