According to an international team of researchers, Venus, Earth's “twin sister” could harbor a form of life in its atmosphere.
The latter have indeed detected a toxic gas, phosphine, which is associated with "life processes" on Earth.
What if Venus, Earth's “twin sister” (also) shelters life?
In any case, this is suggested by the recent discovery by an international team of scientists from the University of Manchester, Cardiff and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
According to them, the cloud layers the second closest planet to the Sun shelters a poisonous gas which could be the consequence of a form of life.
A gas associated with "life processes" ...
This gas is phosphine.
It is found on Earth in small quantities where it is "associated with swamps, wet water, manure ... and therefore with life processes", explains to the microphone of Europe 1 Sylvestre Maurice, astrophysicist at CNES in Toulouse .
Only present in the planet's atmosphere, away from the 470 degrees Celsius of the surface, this gas would be the consequence "of a form of life which would have to be small, to float freely", details Jane S. Greaves, professor of astronomy at Cardiff University, who led the research.
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... partly composed of phosphorus
This study notes that "the photochemistry of droplets in Venusian clouds [of sulfuric acid, note] is completely unknown".
Phosphine is made up of one atom of phosphorus and three of hydrogen.
Phosphorus is one of the six chemical elements of living things, but as Jane S. Greaves cautiously reminds us, its presence on Venus does not imply the presence of life.
"Even if a planet contained abundant phosphorus, it could be missing another condition necessary for life, such as other elements, or its environment could be too hot, or too dry," warns the scientist.
For his part, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine in a tweet called the discovery of phosphine "the most important event" in the search for extraterrestrial life.
He also specifies that he wants to give priority to the study of this planet, initially abandoned in favor of Mars.
Life on Venus?
The discovery of phosphine, a byproduct of anaerobic biology, is the most significant development yet in building the case for life off Earth.
About 10 years ago NASA discovered microbial life at 120,000ft in Earth's upper atmosphere.
It's time to prioritize Venus.
https://t.co/hm8TOEQ9es
- Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) September 14, 2020
A planet that is not conducive to life
If scientists agree on the fact that a priori the atmosphere of Venus, "extremely dehydrating and hyper acidic", is not conducive to life, its cloud layer could therefore be.
That is why Professor Greaves and her colleagues are arguing for further observation of the phenomenon, in the first place to confirm it.
Ideally free from the "filter" of the Earth's atmosphere, thanks to a space telescope.
And why not with a new visit, by probe, of Venus or its atmosphere.