According to researchers from Cardiff University, MIT and Cambridge University, Venus may become more habitable, after possible traces of bacterial life forms have been found in clouds surrounding the planet, writes Sky News and MIT News.
Scientists point out that the planet – which is 47.34 million kilometers from Earth – apparently has the colorless gas ammonia, which consists of nitrogen and hydrogen, in the cloud layer that surrounds the planet.
Too sour
Co-author of the study, William Bains from Cardiff University, has after the study said that they know that life can grow in environments with more acidic pH values than on Earth, but nothing as acidic as in the clouds on Venus.
Potential life on at least 29 planets
Ammonia is strongly alkaline, ie has a low pH value – in contrast to acid gases which sulfuric acid gas, which is found in Venus’ clouds and has a high pH value. The presence of ammonia can neutralize the acid gas and facilitate life.
Researchers believe the gas’s presence has biological causes, rather than natural ones, such as lightning and volcanic eruptions.
“If something creates ammonia in the clouds, it will neutralize some of the drops, and make them potentially more habitable,” Bains told Sky News.
Professor Sara Seager, another co-author from MIT’s Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, tells Sky News that ammonia should not exist on Venus in the first place.
Got the shock of his life from the x-ray
– Ammonia can not exist without hydrogen attached to it, and there is very little hydrogen in the clouds of Venus. Any gas that does not fit into the context of the environment will automatically be suspected of being made of life, she says.
Scientists envision that if there is life in Venus’ clouds, they will resemble microbes found on Earth, like bacteria, which have proven viable in very difficult conditions. There are life forms on earth that produce ammonia precisely to make their habitat more livable.
Planning space travel: – Spectacular
As a result of the researchers’ findings, according to MIT News, Tech Times and Astrobiology soon to be launched privately funded space missions to Venus.
Professor Seager is the leading researcher in the project.
– The spectacular information behind this story is in fact that privately funded space missions to Venus will soon be implemented, says Stephanie Werner, professor of geophysics and planetary sciences at UiO, to Dagbladet.
EXPERT: Stephanie Werner is a professor at the University of Oslo in geophysics and planetary sciences and works with comparative planetology. Photo: UiO
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The project the UiO expert is talking about is called «Venus Life Finder Mission», which is a series of focused astrobiological mission concepts designed to search for habitability, signs of life and the actual state of the Venus atmosphere.
Werner says that the project will be carried out to study the composition and structure of the atmosphere in more detail.
According to Tech Times, the company will RocketLab use a separate electron rocket to send a probe into orbit around the planet by 2023.
– Unlikely, but not excluded
– It was first observed that ammonia is present in the atmosphere of Venus in the 1970s. Several other gases have also been found.
