๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ถ๐ด๐ป๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฝ ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฉ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐
TLDR; “If the scientists are right, then it is one of the most amazing discoveries in history. How amazing would it be to know that not only are we not alone, but that we had neighbors on the closest planet to Earth all this time?”
From Monday’s news: “Most of us are familiar with the old quote from Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ Those words may be more apropos than ever this week, as scientists announced an incredible discovery: tentative evidence for microbial life on Venus! As we know, Venus is a scorching and inhospitable world on the surface, probably the last place youโd expect to find any kind of life. But the hints of these tiny Venusians comes not from the planetโs surface, but rather from higher up in its atmosphere, where conditions can be remarkably Earth-like.
What did the researchers find? Simply put, a gas that shouldnโt be there, and on Earth is considered a conclusive biosignature: phosphine, a very stinky gas. As far as scientists know, there are only two ways to produce it, either artificially in a lab, or by certain kinds of microbes that live in oxygen-free environments. Since it is rather unlikely there any alien labs on Venus, that leaves microbes.
The researchers made the detection using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory in Chile.
Researchers from MIT had previously published studies showing that if phosphine was to ever be found on another rocky planet, it would be a sure sign of life there. Hence why this discovery is so provocative. But before announcing this tantalizing evidence, the researchers, of course, wanted to try to rule out other explanations. They considered and tested many various scenarios where this gas might be produced without life, but as they acknowledge, they came up empty.
Since Venus is much too hot at its surface for any known earthly microbes, they must be in its atmosphere. There is a temperate region, between 48 and 60 kilometers above the surface, where temperatures range from 30 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Thatโs the habitable zone on Venus, and just happens to be where the phosphine was found.
You can, in principle, have a life cycle that keeps life in the clouds perpetually. The liquid medium on Venus is not water, as it is on Earth.
Venus used to be much more habitable a few billion years ago, and even had oceans before the runaway greenhouse effect took hold. As Venus became less hospitable, life would have had to adapt, and they could now be in this narrow envelope of the atmosphere where they can still survive. This could show that even a planet at the edge of the habitable zone could have an atmosphere with a local aerial habitable envelope.
The exciting findings come from scientists in the US and UK, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cardiff University, University of Manchester and others. Jane Greaves of Cardiff University lead the study. The new peer-reviewed research paper was published in Nature Astronomy today, September 14, 2020.”
From Tomorrowโs news: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dUWrpm80WHsJ:https://earthsky.org/%3Fp%3D343883+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
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