Forget Mars, scientists find signs of life on Venus

Scientists have been left ‘stunned’ at a discovery swirling around Venus, where temperatures are high enough to melt lead.

The surface of Venus is incredibly hot.

Evidence that alien life might exist in the atmosphere above Venus has been discovered by astronomers.

A gas has been found in the clouds around the planet that is strongly associated with life, raising the possibility that microbes might be present there.

The phosphine molecules were spotted by astronomers, who said that they had failed to find a non-biological explanation for their presence.

On Earth, phosphine is taken as a sign of life and is found, for instance, in swamp gas after being released by microbes.

The scientists think it is possible that despite the environment of Venus – where surface temperatures are high enough to melt lead and there are clouds of sulphuric acid – microbial life might have found a way to survive more than 55km above the planet.

However, they conceded that it was not proof of life, and there may be chemical processes we do not understand.

Jane Greaves, from the University of Cardiff, looked for the phosphine precisely because astronomers think it may be a key indication of life.

The gas disappears rapidly and must be replenished, with scientists being unable to find a plausible non-living source.

She said she was “stunned” by the discovery. “We looked at all sources on the surface, photochemistry in the atmosphere, and energetic events like a meteor strike or volcano going off,” she said. “We just couldn’t make it go away.”

The research, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, used ground-based telescopes to seek phosphine at a level far higher than on Earth. If life is present, the only way to confirm it would be sampling the atmosphere.

Caleb Scharf, director of the Columbia Astrobiology Centre, New York, said the research was a “wake-up call for thinking about life in unusual places that are right in our planetary backyard”, but cautioned that the findings were far from conclusive.

He said that it would take more evidence for him to get excited, adding: “The field is littered with ‘failed’ life detections.”

The Times