Two teams of scientists have announced that, as a result of new observations of Venus using ground-based telescopes, they have discovered two gases in the planet’s atmosphere: phosphine and ammonia. These gases indicate the potential existence of extraterrestrial life.
It is worth saying that the temperature on Venus is so high that metals can melt, and the atmosphere is very toxic. Simply put: Venus is not the most habitable planet. Yet alien life may be hiding in the clouds of the second planet from the sun, writes The guard.
Scientists have found evidence of phosphine and ammonia in the atmosphere of the toxic and hot planet.
Two teams of scientists have announced that, as a result of new observations of Venus using ground-based telescopes, they have discovered two gases in the planet’s atmosphere: phosphine and ammonia. These gases indicate the potential existence of extraterrestrial life.
It is worth saying that the temperature on Venus is so high that metals can melt, and the atmosphere is very toxic. Simply put: Venus is not the most habitable planet. Yet extraterrestrial life may be hiding in the clouds of the second planet from the sun, writes The Guardian.
Both phosphine and ammonia are among the so-called biosignature gases that can indicate the presence of life. But new discoveries cannot yet serve as proof that life on Venus really exists, even if it is not on the surface, but in the clouds of the planet.
Scientists say the new data raises the possibility that life on Venus originated and flourished in the distant past, when the planet had a more temperate climate. It is also possible that this life in the form of microbes still lives in the planet’s atmosphere.
On the surface of Venus the temperature reaches 450 degrees Celsius, that is, it is hot enough to melt lead and zinc. The pressure on the planet is 90 times higher than the pressure on Earth. And the atmosphere of Venus is filled with poisonous sulfur.
But at an altitude of about 50 km from Venus’ surface, temperature and pressure levels are closer to those on Earth, meaning potentially very hardy microbes could survive there, scientists say.
The results of the new study are preliminary and more observations are needed to say with certainty that phosphine and ammonia are present in Venus’ atmosphere.
If this is the case, the next step for scientists will be to find a possible biological source of these gases. Or perhaps these gases are still being created as a result of unknown chemical processes on Venus, which could also be discovered.
