Is there life on Venus?

[Silurian]

Scientists have discovered phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere. They are somewhat puzzled as phosphine is associated with biological life.

While it can be produced industrially there is no known mechanism which could account for its presence in Venus's atmosphere at the concentrations found which doesn't require living organisms.

They are not definitely claiming that life exists on Venus, simply that this is puzzle in search of a solution.

[buddyhu]

I thought there were women there. And that there were men on Mars.

I guess you can’t believe everything you read.

[H165]

There's definitely life in toxic high-temperature fumaroles at huge water depths here on earth. Also in volcanoes and boiling geothermal vents. Life adapts.

[Silurian]

Originally Posted by H165

There's definitely life in toxic high-temperature fumaroles at huge water depths here on earth. Also in volcanoes and boiling geothermal vents. Life adapts.

The speculation is that microbes could exist high in the atmosphere where temperatures are cooler. The surface temp of Venus is 470 degrees Celsius (880 Fahrenheit)

No earth organism can survive anywhere near those temperatures.

[Slothead56]

It all depends on how you define ‘life’. Could be something our little pea brains can’t recognize!

[rmp]

Well apparently Marvin the Martian was right all along... If you all recall... his plan was to blow the earth as it blocked his view of Venus... "there was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom"....

[Dru Edwards]

I listened to this on talk radio this morning. It's interesting. I wonder how long phosphine can remain in an atmosphere.

[Glennwillow]

Interesting information!

Is there life on Venus?

And here I am, stuck on whether there is life after high school...

- Glenn

[Inyo]

Read the scientific paper that's causing all of this hullabaloo over at
Published: September 14 2020: Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus.

Unfortunately, even the primary researcher (Clara Sousa-Silva) admits that the team can't yet definitively confirm phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere.

Here's why.

From the page over at Possible sign of life on Venus stirs up heated debate:

"Still, ALMA observatory scientist John Carpenter is skeptical that the phosphine observations themselves are real. The signal is faint, and the team needed to perform an extensive amount of processing to pull it from the data returned by the telescopes. That processing, he says, may have returned an artificial signal at the same frequency as phosphine. He also notes that the standard for remote molecular identification involves detecting multiple fingerprints for the same molecule, which show up at different frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s something that the team has not yet done with phosphine.

“'They took the right steps to verify the signal, but I’m still not convinced that this is real,” Carpenter says. “If it’s real, it’s a very cool result, but it needs follow-up to make it really convincing.'

"Sousa-Silva agrees that the team needs to confirm the phosphine detection by finding additional fingerprints at other wavelengths. She and her colleagues had planned such observations using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a plane-mounted telescope, and with NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii.

“'It’s disappointing that we don’t have this proof,'” Sousa-Silva says."

[bfm612]

Just looking to see if anyone's made a Uranus joke yet. I'll check back later.

[Earl49]

"I'm still a planet" -- Pluto

[MakingMusic]

Would be amazing if they found there was intelligent life on Venus. We're still looking for it on planet Earth.

[Mr. Jelly]

I heard that big foot was seen playing with the Loch Ness monster. The government is keeping it hid to protect us.

[Jobe]

Well, I went to Venus recently after my Club Med vacation fell through. It was hot and the food was terrible. The people were nice. I had to stop over in Uranus on the way home because of a bathroom emergency. If in Venus stay away from the oysters. Just a heads up. You don't get that information from a scientific journal.

[tinnitus]

Originally Posted by Jobe

Well, I went to Venus recently after my Club Med vacation fell through. It was hot and the food was terrible. The people were nice. I had to stop over in Uranus on the way home because of a bathroom emergency. If in Venus stay away from the oysters. Just a heads up. You don't get that information from a scientific journal.

The restaurant I tried there actually had decent food, but no atmosphere.