Signs of Life Found on Venus

[homomo 23,883]

Live Press Briefing video

tl;dr:
- Phosphine (gas only formed from living beings) found in Venus' atmosphere
- This shows strong evidence for live, as the only other conclusion would be an unknown chemical reaction that scientists can't explain
- The life would be bacteria like and thrive in moisture molecules within middle cloud layers.
- Once the moisture molecules build up and get heavy, they begin to fall to the surface
- As it gets closer to the harsh surface, the molecule dries out and the bacteria forms a spore, which is light enough to float back up to its moisture cloud layer and restart its life process
- Although gas giants in our solar system have shown signs of phosphine, they are no way comparable to the levels in found in Venus. The scientists behind this discovery are highly confident this phosphine discovery is in no way related to the same process of gas giants

 

National Geographic: SOMETHING DEADLY MIGHT be wafting through the clouds shrouding Venus—a smelly, flammable gas called phosphine that annihilates life-forms reliant on oxygen for survival. Ironically, though, the scientists who today announced sightings of this noxious gas in the Venusian atmosphere say it could be tantalizing—if controversial—evidence of life on the planet next door.

As far as we know, on rocky planets such as Venus and Earth, phosphine can only be made by life—whether human or microbe. Used as a chemical weapon during World War I, phosphine is still manufactured as an agricultural fumigant, is used in the semiconductor industry, and is a nasty byproduct of meth labs. But phosphine is also made naturally by some species of anaerobic bacteria—organisms that live in the oxygen-starved environments of landfills, marshlands, and even animal guts.

Earlier this year, researchers surmised that finding the chemical on other terrestrial planets could indicate the presence of alien metabolisms, and they suggested aiming the sharpest telescopes of the future at faraway exoplanets to probe their atmospheres for signs of the gas.

Now, we may have found signs of phosphine on the planet next door, astronomers report in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“I immediately freaked out, of course. I presumed it was a mistake, but I very much wanted it to not be a mistake,” says study co-author Clara Sousa-Silva, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who initially identified phosphine as a potential biosignature.

Put simply, phosphine shouldn’t be in the Venusian atmosphere. It’s extremely hard to make, and the chemistry in the clouds should destroy the molecule before it can accumulate to the observed amounts. But it’s too early to conclude that life exists beyond Earth’s shores. Scientists caution that the detection itself needs to be verified, as the phosphine fingerprint described in the study could be a false signal introduced by the telescopes or by data processing.

“It’s tremendously exciting, and we have a sort of obligatory response of first questioning whether the result is real,” says David Grinspoon of the Planetary Science Institute. “When somebody comes up with an extraordinary observation that hasn’t been made before, you wonder if they could have done something wrong.”

But if phosphine really is floating through the Venusian cloud deck, its presence suggests one of two intriguing possibilities: that alien life-forms are deftly linking together phosphorus and hydrogen atoms, or that some completely unanticipated chemistry is crafting phosphine in the absence of life. Read more here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/possible-sign-of-life-found-on-venus-phosphine-gas/

 

Old Thread below when it was a rumour

Spoiler

Over the past few hours, scientists around the world have been speculating that astronomers have detected life (most likely microbial) on Venus. To keep things simple, large quantities of phosphine have been detected in its atmosphere. However, phosphine in these quantities cannot exist without the decomposition of organic matter, or being man-made in a lab (as it isn't exactly naturally occurring without life having been present)

The Royal Astronomical Society is set to make a ground-breaking announcement at 4pm UK time today. They even included the "you may have heard rumours" part, signifying it's true.

I will keep this thread updated as time goes on, but for now you can read Brian Roemmele's explanation of what the RAS might just be announcing: https://www.quora.com/Was-life-discovered-in-the-clouds-of-Venus-in-2020/answer/Brian-Roemmele?ch=2&srid=Pi3

 

 

And I need to say this... If this is true, I would honestly say this is one of the biggest, if not THE BIGGEST discovery in the history of human-kind. Let's see what happens.

 

[Red 99,106]

\O/

[JoeMo 3,889]

Omfg... incredible. Imagine if true!

[DiskoBaby 1,929]

[Horny Chicken 10,932]

In before Venus surpasses Shallow as the most awarded song in history. 

[sarahb 17,187]

Wouldn't have expected Venus to be the first planet to potentially have life discovered on it, I'd expect it to be somewhere like Mars or Titan. 

Though part of the Venus atmosphere is fairly habitable apparently. 

[homomo 23,883]

Just now, JK Rowling said:

In before Venus surpasses Shallow as the most awarded song in history. 

Ngl, if this news is true, I can totally see Venus (the song) getting a boost.

[Kimmo 82,283]

Pluto coming through as an insider for this messy Galaxy 

[HeavyMetalLover 16]

Take me to your planet.

[Fusel 1,111]

my garden panties are wet 

[Xoxo Adriana 15,040]

they’re gonna announce that gaga didn’t make it to chromatica and instead crash landed on venus. truly a reverse era expedition

[homomo 23,883]

Just now, sarahb said:

Wouldn't have expected Venus to be the first planet to potentially have life discovered on it, I'd expect it to be somewhere like Mars or Titan. 

Though part of the Venus atmosphere is fairly habitable apparently. 

Honestly, same. However, I believe this was detected in parts of the atmosphere, which is pretty similar to Earth.

Then again, we only know life as carbon based.

[Red 99,106]

2 minutes ago, JK Rowling said:

In before Venus surpasses Shallow as the most awarded song in history. 

Rightfully so

[DiskoBaby 1,929]

Just now, sarahb said:

Wouldn't have expected Venus to be the first planet to potentially have life discovered on it, I'd expect it to be somewhere like Mars or Titan. 

Though part of the Venus atmosphere is fairly habitable apparently. 

Single cell life?

[LateToCult 41,836]

Can’t wait for the Venus microbial life form to drop a makeup palette.