NewsBytes
    Hindi Tamil Telugu
    More
    In the news
    Narendra Modi
    Amit Shah
    Box Office Collection
    Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
    OTT releases
    Hindi Tamil Telugu
    NewsBytes
    User Placeholder

    Hi,

    Logout


    India Business World Politics Sports Technology Entertainment Auto Lifestyle Inspirational Career Bengaluru Delhi Mumbai Visual Stories Find Cricket Statistics Phones Reviews Fitness Bands Reviews Speakers Reviews

    Download Android App

    Follow us on
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
     
    Home / News / Technology News / How scientists found potential signs of life on 'inhospitable' Venus
    How scientists found potential signs of life on 'inhospitable' Venus
    Technology

    How scientists found potential signs of life on 'inhospitable' Venus

    Written by Shubham Sharma
    September 15, 2020 | 08:44 pm 4 min read
    How scientists found potential signs of life on 'inhospitable' Venus

    Recently, a team of scientists made major headlines for discovering potential signs of life on Venus. NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine described the feat as "the most significant development yet in building the case for life off Earth." But, how exactly did the team discover possible 'biosignatures' on a planet that is largely believed to be inhospitable? Let's find out.

    Venus has long been shunted aside due to its 'hellscape'

    Venus is a close terrestrial neighbor of Earth but has not received enough attention from the scientific community owing to its hellscape - a surface hotter than all other bodies in the Solar System. The planet has a mean temperature of 464 degree celsius. Plus, it also has an acidic atmosphere which has 92 times more pressure than that of Earth's atmosphere.

    But, life can exist in harshest environments

    While the situation on Venus might not be suitable for humans, it's not enough to rule out the possibility of life completely. We have seen microbes thrive in some of the harshest environments on Earth, including the superheated, CO2-rich vents at Yellowstone, and the latest discovery, made by an international team led by Cardiff astronomer Jane Greaves, could also be a case like that.

    So, what are these signs?

    Greaves and team have discovered traces of phosphine in the acidic atmosphere of Venus. Phosphine, as many know, is a colorless but smelly gas known to be made only through industrial processes and some species of bacteria that can survive in the absence of oxygen. This led them to predict that there might be some form of biological activity that is producing this gas.

    Traces first found three years ago

    The traces of phosphine came into notice in 2017, during an analysis of data collected on Venus's high clouds using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope operated by the East Asian Observatory in Hawaii. The team knew that the finding of the rare molecule could change the whole world's perspective toward Venus, but they needed more, high-quality data to confirm the observation.

    Then, they turned to a more powerful ground telescope

    The researchers then used the 45 antennae of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile and observed Venus at a wavelength of about 1 millimeter, much longer than the human eye can see. The whole work found that phosphine indeed exists in Venus's clouds - at a concentration of about 20 parts per billion, which means only about twenty molecules in every one billion.

    Both observatories had seen the same thing

    "In the end, we found that both observatories had seen the same thing — faint absorption at the right wavelength to be phosphine gas, where the molecules are backlit by the warmer clouds below," Greaves said in the study published in Nature Astronomy.

    Simulations were run to trace the gas' origin

    After discovering phosphine and the approximate quantity in which it exists, the team ran a series of simulations to explain what could have caused the production of the chemical in the seen amounts. They wanted to check whether any natural, non-biological processes may have led to the formation, but none of the considered factors could make anywhere near the seen levels.

    Microbial life came out as the best explanation

    The calculations by the team showed that various natural factors, including sunlight, minerals blowing from the surface, volcanoes, or even lightning, could have made at most one ten-thousandth of the amount of phosphine found. This left microorganisms as the most plausible explanation; per researchers, microbes would only need to work at 10% of their maximum productivity to expel the observed levels in Venus's atmosphere.

    "If it is life, it means we are not alone"

    "With what we currently know of Venus, the most plausible explanation for phosphine...is life. I should emphasize that life, as an explanation for our discovery, should be, as always, the last resort," said MIT-based study co-author Clara Sousa-Silva. She added, "If it is life, it means that we are not alone. It also means that life itself must be very common."

    Now, we need more data to confirm life on Venus

    That said, while this makes the best case in the search for alien life, it is not a complete confirmation. Scientists need to peer into the atmosphere of Venus to surely determine whether phosphine is produced by microorganisms. If that is confirmed, they'd have to find how these microbes are different from Earth's organisms and how they survive Venus's acidic environment, among other things.

    Share this timeline
    Facebook
    Whatsapp
    Twitter
    Linkedin
    Related News
    Solar System
    Astronomy
    Jim Bridenstine

    Solar System

    An AI just found 50 new planets: Here's how Space News
    Rare comet visible from today, will disappear for 6,800 years NASA
    New Earth-like planet found orbiting a Sun-like star: Details here Space News
    NASA Voyager 2 just found a weird interstellar boundary Space News

    Astronomy

    India to witness annular solar eclipse today; details here Solar Eclipse
    Closest black hole to Earth discovered: Details here Space News
    In this US town, using Wi-Fi is illegal. Here's why United States of America
    ISRO shares first official photos of Earth, clicked by Chandrayaan-2 Moon

    Jim Bridenstine

    SpaceX, Blue Origin set to build NASA's manned Moon lander Moon
    NASA's FDA-approved ventilator will be licensed to manufacturers for free Maruti Suzuki
    SpaceX's first-ever manned space mission happening soon, says Elon Musk SpaceX
    How Mars could become a livable planet one day Elon Musk
    Next News Article

    Love Technology News?

    Subscribe to stay updated.

    Science Thumbnail
    Indian Premier League (IPL) Celebrity Hollywood Bollywood UEFA Champions League Tennis Football Smartphones Cryptocurrency Upcoming Movies Premier League Cricket News Latest automobiles Latest Cars Upcoming Cars Latest Bikes Upcoming Tablets
    About Us Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Contact Us Ethical Conduct Grievance Redressal News News Archive Topics Archive Download DevBytes Find Cricket Statistics
    Follow us on
    Facebook Twitter Linkedin
    All rights reserved © NewsBytes 2023