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For decades, Earth’s “acid” twin has received one verdict: a toxic, overheated, and crushing hell where nothing can survive. But now scientists have a working hypothesis.
While all space powers were concerned about missions to the moon, Mars, and deep space, Venus found signs of life on the planet. Researchers are trying to explain the presence of phosphine gas in the planet’s atmosphere, which is produced by microorganisms on Earth.
The discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus is “the most important event” in the entire search for evidence for the hypothetical existence of extraterrestrial life, said NASA Director Jim Bridenstine. Correspondent.net says the details.
Living in the clouds
After the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky, glowing in the dark like a small diamond. This planet is so bright because of its proximity to Earth, and also because it reflects almost all the light that enters its atmosphere, more than any other planet in the solar system.
Although Venus and Earth are similar in several properties, such as size, mass, chemical composition, and orbital velocity, the conditions that prevail in them are very different. The surface temperature of Venus is above four hundred degrees Celsius and there is almost no water, as in the atmosphere.
The atmosphere of Venus is made up mostly of carbon dioxide. This can be a great demonstration of what global warming can do. Due to the intense heat, there are no oceans here. Hurricanes hit the planet and their smog-like clouds are made up of droplets of sulfuric acid.
The possibility of life on Venus at this time is an open question. Modern science assumes that a suitable solvent is necessary for life to exist. The hypothetical existence of extraterrestrial organisms is expected mainly near water and in this sense, Venus is one of the most unfavorable places.
However, there is still a small amount of water vapor in its atmosphere, which condenses into high-altitude clouds with moderate temperatures, and there are hypotheses that microbes can live there.
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Concepts such as microbes, which relate to terrestrial biology, are used by scientists in a conventional way when talking about extraterrestrial life. When Venus microbes are mentioned, it refers to any microscopic life without reference to the evolutionary tree and internal structure.
On September 14, a group of astronomers led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University published research findings in the journal Nature Astronomy that suggest possible signs of life.
It is phosphine (hydrogen phosphide, PH3), which is a colorless poisonous gas under normal earth conditions. In the earth’s atmosphere, it appears due to anthropogenic activity and due to the vital activity of anaerobic organisms (some bacteria, fungi, algae and worms).
There are other sources of phosphine on Earth: lightning strikes, meteor strikes, and volcanic activity. However, on Venus, the volcanoes are silent and the lightning in Venusian conditions cannot cause the appearance of the detected amount of phosphine; Meteorites can also only partially explain this phenomenon.
From this, the researchers conclude that phosphine is the most appropriate biomarker, indicating the possible presence of living organisms on Venus.
It was also found in the atmospheres of giant planets, such as Saturn, from where it comes from deeper layers of the planets due to convection. Phosphine meets most of the criteria for a bio-signature gas, but registration is quite a difficult task.
The study of the atmosphere of Venus was carried out using the James Clark Maxwell ground-based telescope in Hawaii and the ALMA radio telescope system in Chile in the millimeter wave range.
As a result, the scientists were able to record phosphine with a high degree of precision at heights of 53 to 61 kilometers from the surface of Venus, the content of which is estimated at 20 parts per billion.
“We think we’ve found very compelling evidence for this,” one of the paper’s co-authors, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Sarah Seeger, told a news conference.
NASA chief Jim Bridenstein praised the discovery and called for the exploration of Venus to be a priority.
“Life on Venus? The discovery of phosphine, a byproduct of anaerobic biology, is the most important advance in creating a compelling case for extraterrestrial life,” Bridenstine wrote on her Twitter page.
Now, the only terrestrial device that is not even on Venus, but in its orbit, is the Japanese Akatsuki probe. But it was released long before the discovery of phosphine and cannot answer related questions.
It will be possible to finally confirm or deny this assumption only by sending a special space mission to Venus. The closest of the planned expeditions is Roscosmos’s Venera-D project, in which the United States, Japan and the European Union also participate.
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According to the plan, the mission will include an orbiting satellite, a lander and a “small long-duration station”, and the expedition will start from the Vostochny cosmodrome in one of the possible windows: in 2026, 2028, 2029 or 2031 .
On September 15, Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin called Venus a “Russian planet” and said Russia was considering plans to launch a separate mission to Venus, independent of the Venus-D project.
Rogozin said the program will have to wait until 2030 at the latest.
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