Life on Venus? Maybe

Looks like they have detected phosphine which is produced by microbial life. Big announcement today.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2020.2244

That sounds plausible. Cool find :+1:

There’s an announcement at 4pm GMT and a special programme on BBC4 later.

Nice.

Interesting.

Thanks for sharing :beer:

very interesting find, didn’t know about it.

Here we go

Cool Worlds is a good, authoritative source. Another is Event Horizon and Anton with What Da Math.

I wasn’t aware of possible life on Venus. Thanks for pointing this out. I could catch up with the matter.
IIUC there is no known explanation for phosphine (in such abundance) on a rocky planet other then microbial activity…
Quite fascinating and exciting.

I’m trying to find out if there are any planned missions to Venus in the near future, that could repurposed to investigate.

Would love to know what flashlights or light technology all these excursions are using.

None at present. Maybe this will change things.

All missions are proposed. Just one flyby this year. Hopefully some budget will now be found to get a mission up and running soon.

well, there goes the neighborhood.

from SA:
“…high concentrations of the molecule phosphine—a stinky, flammable chemical typically associated with feces, farts and rotting microbial activity—in an atmospheric layer far above the planet’s scorching surface.”

Paper here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4

So in summary, phosphine is not known to form abiotically in conditions like those present on Venus, but life also is not known to survive in conditions like those present on Venus, so biotic and abiotic theories are open for discussion.

Very informative.

RocketLab has a commercial exploration Venus mission slated for 2023.

It is awaiting funding and approval, but it’s still technically on the drawing board.

The Venusians denied their request.