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Jul 28, 2023 · This is the equivalent of the pressure you’d experience if you were a kilometer (about 0.6 miles) underwater on Earth. What was Venus like in the past? Although Venus is a hellscape today, it likely used to have similar conditions to Earth: oceans of liquid water, a mild climate, and other characteristics that may have made it habitable.
Feb 22, 2023 · Venus today is inhospitable at the surface, its average temperature of 750 K being incompatible to the existence of life as we know it. However, the potential for past surface habitability and upper atmosphere (cloud) habitability at the present day is hotly debated, as the ongoing discussion regarding a possible phosphine signature coming from the clouds shows. We review current understanding ...
Nov 17, 2020 · Venus is Earth’s evil twin — and space agencies can no longer resist its pull According to Greaves and her colleagues, the ALMA data show the spectral signature of phosphine, a molecule made ...
- Alexandra Witze
- 2020
- Life on Venus?
- The Discovery of Phosphine
- More Anomalies
- The Strange Case of Ammonia
- The Phosphine Debate Now
- Phosphine Above Venus’ Clouds?
- Anomalies in Scientific Discovery
- Biological Anomalies on Venus: What If?
So begins a new paper from researchers in the U.S. and U.K. – released November 14, 2022 – related to the continuing saga of possible life in the clouds of Venus. The paper looks at how phosphine is just one of various peculiar features in Venus’ clouds that airborne microorganisms – tiny living creatures such as alien bacteria or fungi – mightexpl...
Jane Greaves and her colleagues at Cardiff University in the U.K. first announced the discovery of phosphinein the atmosphere of Venus in September 2020. The announcement ignited both excitement and skepticism among scientists. And the debate of phosphine’s origins – or if it’s even actually there at all – is still ongoing. After all, on Earth, pho...
While phosphine is the most recent anomalous discovery in Venus’ atmosphere, there’s also other weird chemistry going on there, chemistry that could even point to life signs, or, as scientists say, potential biosignatures. This includes the presence of ammonia, and the fact that Venus’ atmosphere is seemingly somehow in what scientists call redox(c...
The presence of ammonia is one of the most interesting Venusian anomalies. According to the current standard understanding of Venus’ atmosphere, it shouldn’t be there. The Soviet Venera 8probe found evidence of ammonia in 1972. The data suggested its presence at concentrations of 100-1000 ppm (parts per million), at an altitude of between 19 and 28...
The Venusian phosphine is still a subject of much debate. Greaves and her colleagues made the initial observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). In a new paper, announced on November 21, 2022, Greaves and her team maintain that the phosphine is really there. The paper, a...
Other scientists say that if the phosphine is there, it must be above the clouds, not in them. But if so, it would be even more unstable, and need to be constantly replenished somehow. Known chemical processes, both biological and non-biological, would have a hard time explaining phosphine above the clouds. And indeed, Cleland and Rimmer say: Scien...
The researchers argue that anomalies – phenomena that are surprising or unexpected – should be acknowledged, not ignored. They are also not just “failed predictions” as often described, but play central roles in the process of scientific discovery. As the paper says: So, with Venus as a test case, what is the best way forward for researchers? Clela...
If any of these anomalies really are the result of life, it would have a profound effect on our understanding of how life evolves on planets. If life can exist on a hellish a world as Venus, where else might it be? Confirmation of such life would open up a universe of possibilities. But even if these anomalies are non-biological in origin, that wou...
"We've spent the past two years trying to explain the weird sulfur chemistry we see in the clouds of Venus," said co-author Dr. Paul Rimmer from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "Life is ...
Sep 5, 2022 · UT video discussing the possibility of life on Venus. VLF's team has contracted with Rocketlab to send a probe to the Venusian atmosphere using a 2023 launch window.
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Jun 14, 2022 · "We've spent the past two years trying to explain the weird sulphur chemistry we see in the clouds of Venus," said co-author Dr Paul Rimmer from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "Life is ...
