Is there life on Venus? The possibility can't be ruled out

For the first time, scientists have confirmed the presence of ammonia and phosphine in the clouds that envelop Venus. But, what’s so special about these two gases? Interestingly, these two “biomarkers” could be indicative of life.

On our Blue Planet, both of these compounds surface during the decay of organic matter, like plants and animals. Yet, there are currently no other known natural processes that could produce these gases on Venus.

This leads us to a thrilling possibility: could these gases be produced by something we’re not yet aware of?

Life on Venus

Currently, Venus holds the title for being the warmest planet in our solar system.

Imagine a surface hot enough to melt lead. Picture a dense atmosphere blanketed with toxic clouds of sulfuric acid. The thought of life existing in such a place is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

The study was led by Professor Jane Greaves, an astronomer from Cardiff University. She and her team presented their intriguing discoveries at the National Astronomy Meeting 2024 at the University of Hull.

Ammonia in the clouds of Venus

Interestingly, while ammonia has been identified before in our solar system, its presence was seen in the gas giants of Jupiter and Saturn. “It’s natural there because their gas is mostly hydrogen,” noted Professor Greaves.

Finding ammonia on the rocky planets like Earth or Venus, however, is rarer. It tends to be produced by anaerobic decay of plant and animal matter on our planet. Yet, somehow, Professor Greaves and her team detected it in the clouds of Venus.

Detection of gases on Venus

How did they do this? The answer comes from West Virginia’s Green Bank telescope. This gigantic 2.3-acre dish detects weak radio waves that are constantly raining down on us from objects in space.

Dr. Dave Clements from Imperial College London‘s department of physics also contributed significantly to the findings. He was quick to remind us that the detection of these gases on Venus is not hard evidence that life exists there. Particularly, it’s unknown what processes could be emitting these chemicals.

“Our findings suggest that when the atmosphere is bathed in sunlight the phosphine is destroyed. All that we can say is that phosphine is there. We don’t know what’s producing it. It may be chemistry that we don’t understand. Or possibly life.”

Dr. Clements noted that more observations and lab and theoretical work is needed to understand what’s going on, and maybe future missions to Venus will help as well.

In short, this discovery is raising more questions than it answers.

Venus: Earth’s evil twin

With roughly the same size and rocky nature, Venus is often termed as Earth’s “evil twin.”

However, the surface conditions are a far cry from that of our home planet. The average temperature of Venus would make even the most sweltering summer day on Earth feel like a cool breeze.

Despite such extreme conditions, the presence of phosphine and ammonia indicate that at some point, Venus might have been more welcoming. Some believe that about 700 million years ago, Venus may have had oceans similar to Earth’s and could have harbored life.

Venus’ potential for life

The detection of phosphine isn’t entirely new to us. In 2020, scientists found traces of this gas in the planet’s cloud cover. These findings were disputed, and members of the discovery team admitted to a calibration error.

However, this time it was detected again, thanks to the James Clerk Maxwell telescope and Dr. Clements. He suggested that sunlight during the day could be destroying the phosphine.

Further research is needed

While the findings are just preliminary, they are also “very exciting,” according to Dr. Robert Massey, deputy executive director at the Royal Astronomical Society.

“More work is needed to learn more about the presence of these two potential biomarkers in Venus’ clouds,” Dr. Massey told MailOnline.

It seems like we are just at the beginning of a thrilling journey. These potential signs of life or unknown chemical processes have laid a path for more intriguing studies and discoveries in the future.

Is there life on Venus? We’re a little closer to an answer today, but there’s still a lot more to find out.

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