Astronomers Find Signs of Life in Clouds of Venus
Scientists at MIT and Cardiff University have observed what may be signs of life in the clouds of Venus. While they have not found direct evidence of living organisms on the planet, if their observation is indeed associated with life, it must be a kind of aerial life-form in Venus’ clouds, which are the only habitable portion. The astronomers detected a light-based signature of phosphine. MIT scientists had previously shown that if this poisonous gas were ever detected on a terrestrial planet, it could only be produced by a living organism there. After extensive analysis to see whether anything other than life could have produced phosphine in Venus’ harsh environment, the team has concluded that there is no other explanation for the gas detected in Venus' clouds besides the presence of life.
Transcript
00:00:02 CLARA SOUSA-SILVA: Finding signs of life on other planets beyond the Earth would be a way of answering the biggest questions that we've had as a species so far. Where do we come from? Are we alone? Of course these questions are not the exclusive purview of scientists. People have been asking them for as long as is any record of them being able to ask these questions. What is special about this moment and our role in it
00:00:26 as scientist, is that for the first time we're actually able, because we have the tools to answer these questions. JANUSZ PETKOWSKI: So a group of scientists, led by Jane Greaves from the University of Cardiff, were looking for signs, for chemical signs on Venus, that shouldn't belong there. And one of such molecules is phosphine. And they, unexpectedly, they actually were able to find a signal that belongs to this molecule. So then, we raced to figure out what
00:01:02 could be the reason for phosphine on Venus. And this is where our MIT team comes. When we actually looked at all kinds of processes, chemical and physical, that could potentially produce phosphine in Venusian environments. This is a atmosphere. The surface of the planet is completely, completely uninhabited. The atmosphere is the only place in which life actually could in principle exist. There is a belt of clouds.
00:01:30 And we concluded that there is no known chemical and physical process that could conceivably produce phosphine. So this adds to the mystery of Venus. And then, this opens a rather bold possibility that there might be something living in the clouds of Venus. CLARA SOUSA-SILVA: Phosphine is my favorite molecule. And it looks more or less like this, a phosphorous atom on top, and three hydrogens in the base of this pyramid. And phosphine is an extremely difficult molecule to make.
00:02:03 It is only spontaneously made in extreme environments. Such as what you find in the hellish depths of Jupiter and Saturn. It is otherwise only made either naturally by life on Earth or artificially by humans, as a fumigant for example. JANUSZ PETKOWSKI: So the question is why it is actually a staggering discovery. Why it is so important? Well, there are a couple of angles that you can actually answer that question.
00:02:30 One, the first, is that phosphine is absolutely unexpected. It cannot be produced on the rocky planets. At least we don't know of any known processes, chemical or physical, that can produce phosphine. Which means, either our understanding of the physics and chemistry of the rocky planets is severely incomplete, or there is some chemistry, that is so unbelievably weird, that it could even be life.
00:03:00 CLARA SOUSA-SILVA: If we have indeed found life outside the Earth, it puts our own existence into perspective. But it also tells us that life would be much more common than we first imagined. And there is a huge array of possibilities out there in the galaxy of life with different biochemistries and desire. And of course, if we have found life right next door in a planetary neighbor, that would be so cool.