Lurking inside a thick atmospheric cloud on a planet with a surface so hot it could neutralize molecules in seconds, a gaseous smell of life ooze from the sulphuric acid of this hostile planet, sparking hope for humanity in search of life outside its home.
In 1967 Carl Sagan and Harold marowitz published a research that first propounded there maybe life on earth’s sister planet venus, the idea was met with ridicule and censure from both public and peers. The paper outlined the three recipes for life to thrive, which are; water, carbondioxide and sunlight, all these three elements are present in the atmosphere of Venus, while the surface of Venus can burn anything to a crisp with a temperature of 400°c the atmosphere is another world entirely, the paper outlined the fact that the organism will definitely be an aerobic bacteria or an isopyenic organism constructed as a float bladder in order to survive in such an atmosphere.
Five decades after this publication, a team of scientists led by Jane Greaves of cardif university in wales and MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager announced that its members have discovered phosphine gas in the caustic and extremely hot atmospehere of Venus. The gas can be identified by its fishy odor which is thought by scientist to be a byproduct of life on the planet. According to the lead author of the study there was an exhaustive search for what could trigger a phosphine gas in the atmosphere of venus, leaving the researchers with two possibilities; the gas was created by life or was caused by chemical interaction that scientists haven’t discovered yet.
Venus which is the brightest object in our night sky after the moon, Is also closer to earth than mars in terms of proximity, modeling also suggests that the surface of early venus was quite similar to ours today, with lakes or even ocean of waters flourishing on this planet with mild conditions before a major runaway greenhouse effect turned the planet to the hellscape it is today. Which has always delighted planets enthusiasts. In theory, life cannot exist on the surface of Venus due to its high temperature, if life should exist on Venus it will be in its sulfuric acid clouds. Because molecules break apart, if you took amino acid or protein or any other building block and put in a high temperature it will dissolve into smaller fragments and atoms. This therefore eliminate the possibility of life on the surface of Venus.
For life to survive in any environment, it needs an energy source which is sunlight, life needs the right temperature in the atmosphere not too hostile and life also needs a changing environment to foster Darwinian evolution. Apparently, all these features are present in the cloud of Venus, the argument for life on Venus atmosphere is majorly the temperature and the liquid. And these can be used as a clue to detect habitable zone that can host potential lifeforms.
While there is no life form on earth known to survive in liquid sulfuric acid, it is expedient to explore the option that for a life to thrive in such an environment, its building block maybe quite alien to the one on earth, obviously, the building block on earth which are; Amino acid, protein and DNA cannot thrive in sulfuric acid except if it evolve a protective shell that are made of materials which is resistance to sulfuric acid.
Another hypothesis that may had triggered a phosphine gas in venus may also be the fact that our inner solar system has been documented to exchange materials in the past, when meteorites crash into a planet they send the planet’s rocks hurtling into space where they intersect the orbit of other planets. If these happened in the past, then the rock from earth may contain microbial life that may have survived and adapted to Venus acidic cloud.
One of the hypothesis propounded by sara seager for life to thrive in such an environment is that; life has to live inside the liquid droplets in the clouds of venus in order to be protected from the outside. But in this droplets where life is thriving, reproducing and metabolizing, the droplets will collide and grow. Over time within the range of four months and a year the droplets gets big enough so they start settling out of the atmosphere like rain but really slowly. Since it all rains out it couldnt stay in the atmosphere for billions or millions of years.
So, as the droplets falls they evaporate, and we’re left with a dried spore like life form. Now that’s not very massive; it stops falling and get suspended in a haze layer (lower down in the atmosphere).and this haze layer is known to exist beneath the cloud of venus, it is very stable and long lived, the concept is that this haze layer is populated by dried out spores which can stay there for days, weeks, months and even years, and eventually get updrafted back to the region that has the right environment and temperature to habour life, where it can attract liquid, hydrate it and restart a new cycle of life.
While this is not yet a proven hypothesis, they’re many dried out spores on earth living a long time. While it is difficult to think about it and accept that there is definitely no chance of life on a hostile planet, this new discovery has spurred interest in search of life on the planet, because the right hypothesis can spur the search for life on the hostile planet.
A discovery of life on Venus will nullify the fact that only planets in the hospitable zone are capable of life, and it will establish that they’re other ways life can be formed in our galaxy and life can originate anywhere, which brings the upliftment that we’re not alone and that our galaxy is teeming with various form of lifes. They may be a second genesis in venus, or a life arising separately on the planet, but we’ll have to figue it out with research.
For humanity to fully understand how life is flourishing on this planet, it will require a spacecraft probe that will be sent into the atmosphere of Venus to measure the atmospheric gas of the planet, searching for molecules or even looking for life itself on the planet. Many space agencies are picking interest in exploring the planet, because it has been abandoned since the search for life in our solar system due to its hostile environment. It was last explored in 1989 by a US led mission.
A month ago Rocket Lab announced they were planning to send a rocket to Venus to explore the planet, there are two NASA discovery class mission under a phase a competition( meaning they’re just missions proposal they need to be greenlit, if they get selected for launch they’ll get to go) Russia and India are also planning on sending something to explore Venus. This will help us understand better the atmosphere and what has triggered the phosphine gas, either life or some chemical interaction.
As the search for life continues there is a constant need to explore more options in search for life on our solar system, the major goal is to understand how life thrives in worlds different from ours to enable us apply such adaptive features to life on earth. Albeit, The constant search for the working of the universe may leave us in limbo as we cannot fully explain some mysteries of the universe, we will keep searching to explain the ones that can be cracked, in order to set a template for future generation to dream.
While there is no evidence for life outside earth at least for now, we should also restrain from making assumptions and peddling it as fact, in a world where conspiracy theories are rife and where pseudoscience has become a problem, it is expedient for us to fully understand the gamut of any scientific experiment before bringing it to public knowledge.
The universe as we know is very large and constantly expanding, and in our search for extraterrestrial life it is imperative to take care of our home planet. With rising climate change and other events due to human activities we need to look for a way to preserve a better planet for posterity.
– Sunday Jude Abah, a freelance journalist, writes from Lagos.
Reference:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-life-on-venus-these-missions-could-find-it/
“Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus” by Jane S. Greaves, Anita M. S. Richards, William Bains, Paul B. Rimmer, Hideo Sagawa, David L. Clements, Sara Seager, Janusz J. Petkowski, Clara Sousa-Silva, Sukrit Ranjan, Emily Drabek-Maunder, Helen J. Fraser, Annabel Cartwright, Ingo Mueller-Wodarg, Zhuchang Zhan, Per Friberg, Iain Coulson, E’lisa Lee and Jim Hoge, 14 September 2020, Nature Astronomy.
