Joy Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA plans to approve a two-planet science mission by April next year with four proposals under review, one of which is Venus, with scientists involved in the project saying the planet supports life.
An international research team on Monday described evidence of possible microbes in strongly acidic Venusian clouds: traces of phosphine, a gas produced by bacteria living in an oxygen-free atmosphere on Earth. It provides strong evidence of life beyond Earth.
U.S. The space agency shortened four proposed missions in February that are now being reviewed by a NASA panel, two of which will involve Venus’s robotic probes. One of them, known as DAVINCI +, will send a probe into the Venus atmosphere.
“It makes sense for Davinci to be motivated in part by the desire to follow this – because the way to do this is to actually go there and see what’s going on in the atmosphere,” David Greensp, a working astrologer, told DAVINCI + on Tuesday. .
The other three proposals include: IVO, a mission of Jupiter’s volcanic active moon IO; Trident, fly-by-track to map Neptune’s icy moon Triton; And Veritas, another of the proposed Venus missions that will instead focus on understanding the planet’s geological history. NASA has said it could choose one or two missions.
The search for life elsewhere in the solar system has not yet focused on Venus. In fact, NASA launched the next pay-generation rover on Mars in July to search for possible past life traces.
In light of Monday’s findings, NASA Administrator Jim Brydenstein said “it’s time to prioritize Venus.” In a statement, Brydenstein said the selection process for the new potential mission would be difficult “but I know the process will be fair and impartial.”
“The selection process should be responsible for the latest scientific discoveries,” said Greenspan, a senior scientist at the Institute of Green Science.
“If Triton had a mission as an ultimatum, and then someone with a telescope observes, you know, the soccer stadium on Triton, the argument is yes, we should send a mission there,” Greenspoon said.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Will Dunham)
