Scientists spot a sign of possible Life on Venus

VENUS- Earth’s evil twin it’s clouds are made of battery acids. At 900 degrees its surface heat enough to melt lead, Venus is pretty much like the biblical vision of hell today. This may be the hostile real estate in the solar system yet billions of years ago Venus looked alike Earth but to the near of sun Venus was doomed and Earth blossomed. Venus burned yet even here life may thrive.

An international team of astronomers has detected a rare molecule in the atmosphere of Venus that could be produced by living organisms. The discovery instantly puts the brightest planet in the night sky back into the conversation about where to search for extraterrestrial life.

The surface of Venus is a more like a hell. However, some layers of its clouds spot surprisingly hospitable temperatures and pressures. Phosphine is a poisonous gas however, the organizers of the study and other experts agree that the presence of phosphine is not proof of life on another planet.

As astronomers look for signs of life outside our solar system, one method is to look for chemicals that result only from biological processes. These processes are known as bio-signatures.

Phosphine can form only in two ways on Earth. It can be created by an industrial process, or it can come from a biological process in animals and microbes that is not well understood. Some scientists consider it as a waste product.

It’s said that phosphine can be found in the bottom of ponds, the insides of animals like badgers and in the waste of penguins. The astronomers carefully looked at all the possibilities for production of the phosphine: volcanoes, lightning strikes or meteorites falling into the atmosphere. Not a single process we looked at could produce phosphine in high enough quantities to explain the team’s findings.

Furthermore, it is noticed that 50 kilometers above the planet’s surface, in Venus’ thick carbon dioxide clouds, it is about room temperature. The clouds are mostly made up of sulfuric acid. But they also contain droplets with very small amounts of water.

The scientists asked themselves if the phosphine could be coming from microbes living inside the sulfuric acid droplets. Than when the droplets fall to the ground, they might dry out but could collect in other droplets and reanimate.

Venus is one of the most beautiful objects in Earth’s sky. But at a closer glance, the less lovely it becomes. Venus is roughly the same mass as Earth. Many scientists think that Venus was once covered in water and possessed an atmosphere where life as we know it could have flourished.

In earlier days of the solar system, Earth was not so hospitable to the desires we have. Even an entire biosphere that did not survive in the oxygen-rich environment that later developed. And much as Earth over time became a home for jellyfish, ferns, dinosaurs and Homo sapiens, Venus was transformed by something into a hell.

Today, the second planet from the sun has an atmosphere stifled by carbon dioxide gas, and surface temperatures that average more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit. The dense atmosphere of Venus exerts a pressure of more than 1,300 pounds per square inch on anything at the surface. That is more than 90 times the 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level on Earth, or the equivalent to being 3,000 feet underwater in the ocean.

For the last two decades, scientists keep making new discoveries that collectively imply a significant increase of the likelihood to find life elsewhere. Many scientists would not have guessed that Venus would be a significant part of this discussion. But, just like an increasing number of planetary bodies, Venus is proving to be an exciting place of discovery.

If there really is phosphine on Venus, its believed there could be no other obvious explanation than anaerobic life.