A joint international research team was able to find chemical signs indicating the possibility of life on Venus, and this is the first time that scientists have been able to monitor these signs, after they were only predictions over decades ago.
Signs of life
The results were published in Nature Astronomy and announced on the European Science Observatory (ESO) website on September 14th.
To reach it, scientists used the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), which is located in the American Hawaiian Islands, to monitor the atmosphere of Venus.
After that, these results were confirmed using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA for short, which is located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile and contains 45 maps. It enabled scientists to monitor the planet’s atmosphere and analyze its components by degree. High resolution.
Scientists used the James Clerk Telescope located in the American Hawaiian Islands to monitor the atmosphere of Venus (Adam W - Wikipedia)
According to the new study, the team was surprised at the presence of large quantities of phosphine, PH3, in the planet's atmosphere.
This was not expected.
Phosphine gas is formed on Earth due to the presence of living organisms, whether due to human activity or the metabolism of some types of bacteria, and scientists do not know - according to the study - any chemical method for its production on Venus.
This led to the conclusion that the presence of phosphine is possible related to the presence of living organisms - perhaps bacterial - in the atmosphere of the planet, but this does not mean confirmation of the existence of life there, as there may be chemical mechanisms that scientists do not understand yet that caused this, especially since the atmosphere of Venus is very dense. It is replete with many complex chemical compounds that may interact unknown to us with each other or with sunlight.
The researchers were surprised by the presence of large quantities of phosphine gas PH3 in the atmosphere of Venus (European Southern Observatory)
Earth's twin
Venus is called the "twin of Earth" because it is almost similar to our planet in size, but it is completely different in everything else. There, the massive global warming caused the temperature to reach 465 degrees Celsius, higher than the daytime temperature of Mercury, the closest to the sun.
It is believed that Venus was once as blue as the Earth more than 4 billion years ago, but due to the increasing activity of the sun, its oceans evaporated to create this very dense atmosphere.
The researchers hope that these results will help in directing the eyes of researchers, and their telescopes, by extension, towards one of the planets closest to Earth, hoping that we can monitor any image of life on it, but until this moment we do not know a home for life except our good earth.