The Discovery Of Life On Venus

September 27th, 2020

By: Haris Ahmad

Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It doesn’t have any natural satellites/Moons and is a rocky planet. The close distance to the Sun coupled with the thick atmosphere of Venus makes it trap an insane amount of heat and hence, Venus is known to be the hottest planet in the Solar System. The temperatures on this planet can reach up to a blazing 462 degrees Celsius. This is enough to kill you and turn you into ashes in less than 2 seconds. Furthermore, it rains Sulphuric acid on this planet which is a highly corrosive acid and will burn you in the matter of seconds. This deadly rain is caused due to the composition of its atmosphere. If you want to see a place similar to hell in this life, then go to Venus and you’ll have an idea.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/16/1008478/venus-soon-as-possible-phosphine-clouds-astrobiology-life-veritas-davinci/

According to some theories, Venus was very similar to Earth millions of years ago; however, something went terribly wrong and unimaginable amounts of gases such as Cabon dioxide were released. Scientists still aren't sure about what exactly happened but whatever happened, it wasn't normal. This gives birth to many questions such as, was Venus once habitable, if yes then what lived on it, where did the inhabitants go or what happened to them, and so on. Whatever the changes may be in favor of life being on Venus, it is a general conception that in the current conditions, Venus cannot be home to any kind of living organism in any way, taking into account its conditions. However, you would be shocked to hear that scientists have recently discovered signs of life in Venus's atmosphere.  

Even though the surface of Venus may not be welcoming, the atmosphere may be the place where we should look for life in the form of microorganisms. There is a region of Venus's atmosphere that isn't too hot or too cold and may be suitable for life to exist in.  

Hence, Scientists have detected the presence of Phosphine gas in the same ideal region of the atmosphere of Venus. Phosphine is a deadly molecule to humans and was also used in the first World War as a weapon in chemical warfare. The reason behind Phosphine being so toxic to humans is that it reacts very easily with the oxygen that our body needs to respire and survive. However, Phosphine is not toxic to the forms of life which do not require oxygen to survive. In fact, some also produce phosphine. This gas is often found in oxygen-free environments on our planet and is produced by the waste of some microbial organisms. Therefore, if some kinds of microbes produce phosphine on Earth, there could also be some organisms on Venus that can produce Phosphine.  

The deep story behind this discovery is that one of the astronomers operating the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at Hawaii known as Jane Greeves detected a hint of Phosphine gas in the atmosphere of Venus but that sign was confirmed by a more powerful telescope ALMA or Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope located in Chile. 

After observing Venus again, scientists were assured that it was indeed, Phosphine. After countless experiments and simulations of trying to create Phosphine without life, the scientists failed and hence, it was sure now that according to the laws of modern science, Phosphine can only be produced by microbial life.  

There are two plausible explanations for the Phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere. Either the production of Phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus is the result of some reactions that are unknown to modern science. Or, there is microbial life in the atmosphere of Venus which is producing the Phosphine gas.  

Venus has now become the top priority for Scientists and they are planning to send missions there to search for life. This would happen soon because Venus isn't very distant from us being a planetary neighbor.