If phosphene is a sign of life on Venus, it’s entirely possible it is simply only one form of life. Posted on Sep 22, 2020 in Our Solar System, Planetary Science, Planets, podcast, Solar System | 0 comments UFO hunters are convinced they have found evidence of life on Venus, sharing photographs of what they believe are alien-built structures. Starting in the 1960s, a series of Soviet missions revealed a furnace of a world, with a thick, cloudy atmosphere that keeps the surface so hot that lead would melt on it like ice on Earth. On Earth, this gas is only produced by living organisms, and there seems to … The scientists behind the discovery had to apply mathematical equations to extract those little signals from noisy data and then try to interpret them based on their current knowledge of another planet, which itself isn’t very robust. But the finding will also encourage some planetary scientists to ask whether humanity has overlooked a planet that may have once been more Earthlike than any other world in our solar system. Ep. In all these scenarios, life on both planets will have a common bond. I highly recommend reading these two articles by Phil Plait and ArsTechnica about what was found. “Many scientists would not have guessed that Venus would be a significant part of this discussion. But at a closer glance, the less lovely it becomes. The detection of phosphine in Venus' clouds is a big deal, and here's how we can find out if it really is life Sep 18, 2020 Venus might be habitable today, if not for Jupiter Space programs have tried dozens of robotic missions to Venus, many of them in the Soviet Union’s Venera series. For now, the best views are from Earth. It seems like these are huge disagreements, but they come down to teeny, tiny decisions and data-processing mechanisms. “There’s not a lot of understanding of where it’s coming from, how it forms, things like that,” said Matthew Pasek, a geoscientist at the University of South Florida in Tampa. In earlier days of the solar system, Earth was not so hospitable to the likes of us. (They still disagree about whether methane on Mars is a sign of life.) Volcanic activity and lightning on Venus would not be sufficient to add more of this constantly disappearing phosphine, according to the researchers’ models. So far, such signals have been intriguing, but they are not convincing proof of aliens. Stargazing with Pete - September 2020. ", Sousa-Silva and her colleagues expected the scrutiny, of course, and even welcomed it. No ruling body of the solar system, no Supreme Court of astronomy, will someday pass down the definitive determination about phosphine on Venus. Chris e Maggie relatam a reação ao dramático anúncio da descoberta do gás fosfina nas nuvens de Vênus, um gás que pode ser um sinal de vida. Jane Greaves, an astronomer at Cardiff University in Wales, set out in June 2017 to test that hypothesis using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, looking for signs of various molecules on Venus. Telescope observations don’t produce handy readouts that say Yes phosphine or No phosphine. The hothouse planet, Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, suddenly looks more intriguing as a potential abode of life. While Venus is similar to Earth in size, mass, and … But these gases, such as burps of methane or oxygen on Mars, can also be produced by chemical reactions that do not involve life at all. One team argued that the signal was coming not from phosphine but from sulfur dioxide, which is common in Venus’s clouds and produced by plain old chemical interactions. Science, especially science at the edge of current knowledge, is supposed to be an intellectual scuffle, and this one is still in motion. And nobody knows whether the microbes, if real, are based on DNA like us, or something entirely different. In that setting, Dr. Sousa-Silva said, life is not necessary to form phosphine. In an extremely 2020 plot twist, aliens might be real after all. “I got intrigued by the idea of looking for phosphine, because phosphorus might be a bit of a sort of go-no-go for life,” Dr. Greaves said. Venus was the first planet human beings ever explored with spacecraft. Let me answer the click-bait question above immediately by saying that life has not been found on Venus. The possibility of life on Venus is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to its proximity and similarities to Earth.To date, no definitive proof has been found of past or present life on Venus.Theories have decreased significantly since the early 1960s, when spacecraft began studying the planet and it became clear that its environment is extreme compared to Earth's. Several researchers replicated the team’s data analysis and came up empty, suggesting that the specific formula Greaves and her colleagues had used to make sense of their observations might have produced a fake signal. “Strictly speaking, from a scientific point of view, you can never prove that there is no phosphine,” Snellen told me, but “at some point, you have to stop looking.”, An absence of phosphine wouldn’t mean that Venus must be uninhabited. The possibility of life on Venus is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to its proximity and similarities to Earth.To date, no definitive proof has been found of past or present life on Venus.Theories have decreased significantly since the early 1960s, when spacecraft began studying the planet and it became clear that its environment is extreme compared to Earth's. The second-closest planet to the Sun, Venus is inhospitable — with a surface temperature around 867°F (464°C) and pressure 92 times that of on the Earth. Before their imaginations run away, the researchers want to gather more telescope data and see their models tested and challenged. Those who have detected evidence of phosphine in Venus’s clouds say that although the case for it might be weaker, it’s not dead yet; those who don’t see evidence of it say that the phosphine researchers are seeing only what they want to see. Unfortunately for them, Venus is oblivious to the kvetching unfolding a planet away and has since moved along. Such living things would have had to evolve to survive in a high-acid environment, perhaps with protective outer layers similar to microscopic organisms in Earth’s most extreme environments. Published 14 Sep 2020, 16:48 BST, Updated 5 Nov 2020, 04:57 GMT. It's believed to have had oceans billions of years ago. Instead, for decades, scientists have sought signs of life elsewhere, usually peering outward to Mars and more recently at Europa, Enceladus and other icy moons of the giant planets. Other scientists have raised doubts about the research. One of the chemicals was phosphine. I highly recommend reading these two articles by Phil Plait and ArsTechnica about what was found. She did not expect to find it. Doubts about the existence of phosphine gas on Venus—a possible … The detection of a gas in the planet’s atmosphere could turn scientists’ gaze to a planet long overlooked in the search for extraterrestrial life. Bottom line: On September 14, 2020, Venus was added to the list of potentially habitable worlds in the solar system. Like I said before, phosphene is produced on earth by organisms that are living in environments that are very poor in oxygen. Sept. 19, 2020; It’s been a while — like, forever — since anyone claimed to have discovered life on Venus. On Venus there is a sweet spot at 48 to 60 km (30 to 37 miles) above Venus' surface, in the clouds, where the temperature is not too hot, not too cold, but just right for life. It's believed to have had oceans billions of years ago. On Earth, the gas is produced by microorganisms. Posted on December 19, 2020 by tonyheller The World Economic Forum has discovered life on Venus! Traces of life on Venus now seem dubious Paola Rosa-Aquino 11/2/2020. The team needed a more powerful telescope, and the scientists next used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, in Chile, in March 2019. Venus, roughly the same size as Earth, is often called our sister planet. Planetary scientist Sara Seager: This is an astonishing and ‘out of the blue’ finding. Back in September, one team of scientists reported that it had discovered evidence of a toxic gas called phosphine in the planet’s atmosphere. So close, so similar and very mysterious, the planet is surprising scientists with a chemical signature spotted in its clouds. Alien Life On Venus refers to the news in mid-September 2020 that scientists found phosphine gas linked to life in the atmosphere of Venus. On such worlds, “as far as we can tell, only life can make phosphine,” Dr. Sousa-Silva said. While Venus is similar to Earth in size, mass, and rocky composition, its surface temperatures reach 900 °F, and its […] Hypothetical life cycle of the Venusian microorganisms. Different species of molecules will absorb radio waves coming through the clouds at different characteristic wavelengths. Posted on December 19, 2020 by tonyheller The World Economic Forum has discovered life on Venus! In September, news about the possibility of floating, cloud-based life on Venus caused a storm in the science world as tumultuous as the sulfur clouds that … Many scientists think that Venus was once covered in water and possessed an atmosphere where life as we know it could have flourished. If life does exist on Venus it would look very different to Earth. On Earth, this gas signifies life. Venus now jumps to the top of the list of targets in our Solar System where astrobiologists are looking for microbial life. On the TV show “Breaking Bad,” the main character, Walter White, makes it to kill two rivals. The controversial part of this discovery was supposed to be the suggestion that life could exist in Venus’s clouds. But it’s good science at work. Venus, named after the Roman goddess of beauty, roasts at temperatures of hundreds of degrees and is cloaked by clouds that contain droplets of corrosive sulfuric acid. Another group reached decades into the past and found a potential signal for phosphine, buried in data from a NASA mission that started studying Venus in 1978. Only fresh observations can help turn a collection of maybes into a consensus, one way or another. The Sky at Night gains exclusive access to the team of scientists behind the recent discovery of possible signs of life on Venus. “The finding itself is astonishing,” said Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at North Carolina State University who was not involved in the research. “All viewpoints are important, and we should treat our colleagues with respect.”. Whereas frigid Mars is currently ringed by orbiters and prowled by NASA rovers, Venus is being studied by only one probe, the lonely Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki. If phosphene is a sign of life on Venus, it’s entirely possible it is simply only one form of life. Biden Calls for Unity; California Shatters Record: Virus Update. Sept. 19, 2020. This time, they found, all signs pointed to phosphine, and a lot of it, ranging from 5 to 20 parts per billion. The science community is divided—enough that one rebuttal paper had the authors “invite” the researchers who originally identified the phosphine to consider retracting their study altogether. While Venus is similar to Earth in size, … The detection of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus—a possible sign of life—might be due to a fluke in data processing, new analyses suggest. By Nadia Drake. Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other astronomical and space event that's out of this world. But today, it's considered inhospitable to life. Yeah, yeah. ... which found a possible sign of life on Venus. This is the discussion we’ll be having every time, and hopefully, every time a little better.”. After the news came out, other scientists around the world dug into the research, and a flurry of papers started appearing online. Some researchers question this hypothesis, and they suggest instead that the gas could result from unexplained atmospheric or geologic processes on a planet that remains mysterious. Thursday, 17 September 2020 | Pioneer. The NASA spacecraft Cassini detected it in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. We know that alien theories are usually easily squashed. Astronomers spotted the chemical signature of phosphine, a gas that on Earth is only associated with life. And even if no phosphine exists on Venus—even if Venus isn’t the place where we first detect life outside of Earth—some other molecule, someday, could galvanize the scientific community like this molecule did, and spark another debate that could bring us closer to answering some of our most existential questions. “Despite prior speculation (mostly by the same authors), this can hardly be taken as a biosignature,” Gerald Joyce, a biologist at the Salk Institute in California who has experimented with creating life in the lab, said in an email. The 2020 WBZ Gingerbread ... “it’s probably a 10% chance that it’s life,” Yeah right. Venus rotates so slowly that a night on Venus lasts 58 Earth days. Decades later, Jane Greaves, an astronomer at Cardiff University, directed a telescope at our next-door neighbor. “Because we only have that one data point.”. “It’s not true that if there’s no phosphine on Venus, there shouldn’t be life.”. Phosphine is shaped like a pyramid with three atoms of hydrogen bonded to a single atom of phosphorus. "Even the publications that [say] no phosphine have their own different ways of saying no phosphine,” Clara Sousa-Silva, an astrochemist who studies phosphine at Harvard, and one of Greaves’s co-authors, told me recently. “Remember, this is a scientific session, and we will have different viewpoints,” said Sushil Atreya, a climate and space sciences professor at the University of Michigan and one of the conference’s organizers. I can see why Bowie choose to sing about Mars instead, it’s easier to sing for one thing. Chris e Maggie relatam a reação ao dramático anúncio da descoberta do gás fosfina nas nuvens de Vênus, um gás que pode ser um sinal de vida. If life did exist in the clouds of Venus it would be very different to anything on Earth, Dr Dempsey said. “I know the public just expected us to one day point and say, ‘Hey, aliens!’” Sousa-Silva said. “Even if there’s less phosphine than we originally stated on Venus, our interpretation that it’s very hard to produce with any known chemistry still stands,” Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at MIT, told me. “What we’re seeing is the volatile and messy process by which science plays out,” David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist at the Planetary Science Institute, told me. Often called Earth’s twin, Venus is roughly the same mass as Earth. M.I.T. An image of Venus, made with data recorded by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft in 2016. The search for extraterrestrial life has largely focused on Mars, but scientists at MIT, Cardiff University, and elsewhere reported surprising findings in September of what may be signs of life in the clouds of Venus. 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