OT: Life on Venus ?!...

[Martin Brown]

If confirmed then this is really quite an unexpected surprise but
phosphine has been detected in the upper atmosphere of Venus and in
sufficient amounts that something must be making it continuously.

No known inorganic or photochemical process can do that so it is just
possible that these ALMA observations really are confirmation of life on
another planet. Certainly the atmosphere of Venus is not in chemical
equilibrium in the way that you would expect. It could be something else
odd going on but it has to be worth looking for microbes in the clouds.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4

The instrumental technique to get a high resolution spectrum in the 1mm
waveband is quite ingenious.

BBC Sky at Night did a special on it last night - you may need to spoof
a UK IP address to watch.

Interviews with the researchers and a biochemist that has tried to find
any purely inorganic reactions that might possibly make phosphine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mmjk/the-sky-at-night-life-on-venus

Venus cloud decks are extremely acidic. The demonstration of what
happens to various terrestrial things when subjected to conc sulphuric
acid are amusing. Seems like some things could survive - various
terrestrial succulents have sufficiently waxy skins to resist conc.
H2SO4. And extremophiles have been found in highly unlikely places
including sulphurous springs but nothing quite so extreme as on Venus.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Ricketty C]

On Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 7:21:25 AM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:

If confirmed then this is really quite an unexpected surprise but
phosphine has been detected in the upper atmosphere of Venus and in
sufficient amounts that something must be making it continuously.

No known inorganic or photochemical process can do that so it is just
possible that these ALMA observations really are confirmation of life on
another planet. Certainly the atmosphere of Venus is not in chemical
equilibrium in the way that you would expect. It could be something else
odd going on but it has to be worth looking for microbes in the clouds.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4

The instrumental technique to get a high resolution spectrum in the 1mm
waveband is quite ingenious.

BBC Sky at Night did a special on it last night - you may need to spoof
a UK IP address to watch.

Interviews with the researchers and a biochemist that has tried to find
any purely inorganic reactions that might possibly make phosphine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mmjk/the-sky-at-night-life-on-venus

Venus cloud decks are extremely acidic. The demonstration of what
happens to various terrestrial things when subjected to conc sulphuric
acid are amusing. Seems like some things could survive - various
terrestrial succulents have sufficiently waxy skins to resist conc.
H2SO4. And extremophiles have been found in highly unlikely places
including sulphurous springs but nothing quite so extreme as on Venus.

Yeah, it\'s amazing how life can fight against the odds sometimes. There is a planet in this solar system with over 2/3rds of the surface covered with a highly corrosive liquid that exists in all three phases so that it is impossible to escape and yet life abounds on the surface, in the air, in the depths of the waters. There is nearly no place where life is not found.

Amazing!

--

Rick C.

- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Judges1318]

On Tue, 15 Sep 2020 12:21:14 +0100, Martin Brown wrote:

If confirmed then this is really quite an unexpected surprise but
phosphine has been detected in the upper atmosphere of Venus and in
sufficient amounts that something must be making it continuously.

No known inorganic or photochemical process can do that so it is just
possible that these ALMA observations really are confirmation of life on
another planet. Certainly the atmosphere of Venus is not in chemical
equilibrium in the way that you would expect. It could be something else
odd going on but it has to be worth looking for microbes in the clouds.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4

The instrumental technique to get a high resolution spectrum in the 1mm
waveband is quite ingenious.

BBC Sky at Night did a special on it last night - you may need to spoof
a UK IP address to watch.

Interviews with the researchers and a biochemist that has tried to find
any purely inorganic reactions that might possibly make phosphine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000mmjk/the-sky-at-night-life-on-
venus

Venus cloud decks are extremely acidic. The demonstration of what
happens to various terrestrial things when subjected to conc sulphuric
acid are amusing. Seems like some things could survive - various
terrestrial succulents have sufficiently waxy skins to resist conc.
H2SO4. And extremophiles have been found in highly unlikely places
including sulphurous springs but nothing quite so extreme as on Venus.

A number of years ago I read about then Soviet plan to seed chlorella
algae to Venus with one of the probes. The algae are singe cell and
small, and would float in the CO2 rich atmosphere. The idea was
that chlorella would perhaps survive, convert over the time CO2 into O2,
thus reducing the CO2 concentration, which would reduce the temperature
and would make the Venusian atmosphere O2 rich, perhaps breathable.
With the gravitation almost as strong as that of the earth, perhaps
Venus could be even made habitable. Though, if I remember, the magnetic
shield from solar winds does not work on Venus.

The moral is that the Soviets did perhaps send chlorella to Venus, but
kept it a secret. Or, perhaps, that some subversive scientist did
secretly pack a chlorella filled tube in the probe.