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The surface of Venus is extremely inhospitable: hot enough to melt lead, the sulfuric acid lingers and forms the best part of the planet’s atmosphere. Yet, just a few months ago, scientists for the first time found evidence of life on Earth’s red-hot neighbor. Cardiff University researchers shocked the astronomical community after identifying traces of phosphine – a key biological signature of life – in the atmosphere of Venus.
The discovery was nothing short of a paradox: with rising temperatures and a lack of oxygen, the gas would technically disappear within minutes if it ever emerges.
Therefore, the search for life on Venus had rarely crossed the minds of scientists.
Efforts have largely focused on Mars and Jupiter’s moons, for example Europa, which is thought to have reserves of frozen lakes and fresh water.
Now, researchers are calling for efforts in alien life to change course and start closer to home.
Life on Venus: The search for alien life should begin on Venus, said one astronomer (Image: GETTY)
Venus: the surface of the planet is extremely inhospitable (Image: GETTY)
Dr Mark A Garlick noted that there are many other places in the Solar System advertised as potential abodes of life, but they have not yet been discovered.
He reasoned: “But of these worlds, Venus is the easiest to reach.
“At an altitude of 50 km, floating habitats would be the ideal launch pad from which to look for signs of life in the clouds.
“Perhaps our search for extraterrestrial cousins among the planets should start there.”
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Venus: the surface of the planet is extremely inhospitable (Image: GETTY)
It came when the astronomer weighed the evidence for the existence of life forms on Venus – what he described as the “hell world” in a report for the BBC’s Sky at Night magazine.
At first glance, Venus is the antithesis of everything that sustains life.
The atmospheric pressure on the ground is 93 bar, similar to that under 900 m of water on Earth; the sky, meanwhile, behaves more like a fluid than a gas.
It is so dense that winds can easily move small rocks.
However, it is widely accepted that billions of years ago Venus, Earth and Mars had a similar genetic makeup, where similar distances from the Sun, and were formed from the same rocks and metals.
If life had taken root here, on Earth, it could have done so on our neighbors too, the only difference being the climatic catastrophes that devastated Venus and Mars.
Despite its high temperatures, Venus is just a heat trap on its surface.
At an altitude of 50 km, Dr. Garlick explained that the atmospheric pressure drops to 1 bar, the temperature comparable to a temperate day on Earth.
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Terraforming: What Venus might look like Scientists should terraform the planet and reforest the surface (Image: GETTY)
Microbial Life: Bacteria could live in Venus’s atmosphere just like life on Earth does (Image: GETTY)
This is the habitable zone of Venus; it must be seen if life could flourish in this goldilocks region.
Dr Garlick said: ‘Venus is an extremely cloudy world: only 20 percent of the incident sunlight penetrates the surface.
“However, the atmosphere is not entirely shapeless; contrast-adjusted photos reveal the presence of dark spots or bands, which are particularly visible at ultraviolet wavelengths.
“These so-called ‘unknown absorbers’, discovered more than a century ago, are caused by mysterious substances that block most of the ultraviolet light and some of the visible light, making these regions relatively dark.”
Sky at Night: Dr. Garlick said the discovery of phosphine was overly exciting in the pursuit of life (Image: BBC)
In a 2019 study, researchers from the Technical University of Berlin explored the source of these dark spots.
They have not been able to satisfactorily explain their formation and absorption properties.
What we do know, however, is that these unknown materials are comparable in size to light-absorbing bacteria on Earth and exhibit a similar absorption profile.
The discovery of phosphine, therefore, was another pride of Venus: it stipulated that it had to be created biologically.
But scientists have yet to identify other chemical processes that can make it.
And, as other observers have noted, phosphine may be produced by a process humans have not yet discovered.
Phosphine: it is a simple structure that indicates the existence of life whenever it is present (Image: GETTY)
However, it is this gap in knowledge that Dr. Garlick says it is the most “exciting” element of the discovery.
He said: “Phosphine and the unknown substances that absorb ultraviolet light, taken together, constitute a good reason to study the subject more closely.”
On Earth, microbial life is everywhere.
Therefore, the claim that bacteria survive in the stretches of Venus’s atmosphere is not as ridiculous as it may seem at first glance: Bacteria carried in water particles in the Earth’s atmosphere can survive at altitudes of up to 4 km.
Life under these conditions would, as Dr. Garlick put it, “undoubtedly very resilient.”
But, vitally, not impossible.
You can read and subscribe to the BBC Sky at Night maagzine here.
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