Life Possibly Found in the Clouds of Venus: Cardiff University Researchers Discover Phosphine Gas

JAKARTA – Researchers from Cardiff University believe there is life in the clouds of Venus, the second planet from the sun. This planet has long been considered an uninhabitable world.

Reporting from The Space Academy, Planet Venus has a surface temperature of about 470 ° C and a crushing atmospheric pressure 92 times that of Earth.

“Recent discoveries by an international team of astronomers have raised the possibility that life may exist in the clouds of Venus, where conditions are more Earth-like,” wrote the page, quoted Friday (18/5/2023).

Jane Greaves, a researcher from Cardiff University said her team discovered the chemical phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus while monitoring with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, in Hawaii and the large millimeter array Atacama, in Chile.

“Phosphine is a gas that on earth is only produced by living organisms or in industrial processes. It is highly toxic and flammable, and has the smell of rotting fish,” he continued.

The detection of phosphine on Venus is a surprising and exciting discovery, because it implies that there may be some biological or chemical process that produces the gas in the planet’s atmosphere.

Researchers estimate that there are about 20 parts per billion of phosphine in Venus’ clouds, which is a relatively high concentration compared to Earth.

Even so, the research team ruled out the possibility of non-biological sources of phosphine on Venus, such as volcanoes, lightning, meteorites, or chemical reactions involving minerals or sunlight.

They concluded, however, that neither of these scenarios could explain the observed amounts of phosphine. However, there are some forms of life in Venus’ clouds that produce gas.

“The discovery of phosphine on Venus has sparked a lot of interest and excitement among scientists and the public, as it opens up new avenues for exploring the planet,” he said.

(san)