Astronomers have detected a chemical signature in the atmosphere of Venus that may be associated with life.
While the signature isn’t robust enough to definitively declare that there’s life on our nearest planetary neighbour, in a new paper published today in the journal Nature Astronomy, the international team says they have ruled out any other known sources that could have produced the chemical compound, phosphine.
“The reason we’re so excited about this finding in this paper is that we found phosphine gas, which doesn’t belong in the Venus atmosphere,” said Canadian co-author Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“We can say that it might be associated with life.”
Phosphine, chemically known as PH3, is produced on Earth by organisms that don’t require oxygen to survive, or can be created in laboratories. Over recent years, astronomers have proposed that it could be used as a chemical signature that might be associated with biological processes on exoplanets, planets orbiting distant stars.
This artistic impression depicts Venus, where scientists have confirmed the detection of phosphine molecules, shown in the inset. Astronomers have speculated for decades that life could exist in Venus’s high clouds. The detection of phosphine could point to such extra-terrestrial ‘aerial’ life. (ESO M. Kornmesser/L. Calçada/NASA/JPL/Caltech)
Lead author Jane Greaves, a professor of astronomy at Cardiff University in the U.K., decided to look closer to home in an effort to detect phosphine, initially using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii to look in the clouds of Venus. She made the detection, which was a bit of a surprise, and then followed it up with observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory in Chile, which confirmed the findings.
But they could not account for the amount of phosphine they found.
“We were able to do calculations for lots of things, like volcanoes … things like meteors dumping new rocks into the atmosphere, even lightning, all these things that could be an energy boost,” Greaves said. “And we found that you were like 10,000 times short of the phosphine you’d need if you made any new reasonable assumptions for these sources.”
That eliminated everything, except the possibility of biological processes in the clouds of Venus, though the authors noted that there could be unknown photochemical or chemical processes.
Some skepticism
Venus is often referred to as our sister planet. Roughly the same size as Earth, Venus is believed to have had oceans for two to three billion years after its formation. However, roughly 700 million years ago, it underwent a dramatic change that produced a type of runaway greenhouse effect. Now, the cloud-covered planet is the hottest in our solar system, with temperatures high enough to melt lead and a crushing carbon dioxide environment that is extremely inhospitable for any life to exist on its surface.
However, it’s been long hypothesized that life could exist in a region of the thick, cloudy atmosphere, between 48 and 60 kilometres above the surface, the location where phosphine was detected.
The detection of phosphine in the clouds of Venus could point to extra-terrestrial “aerial” life in its atmosphere. 1:41
The clouds themselves are composed of sulfur dioxide, which makes the environment highly acidic and, theoretically, inhospitable. However, over the past few decades, scientists have discovered life on Earth that can live in harsh conditions, called extremophiles.
“We’ve found that there are indeed, what we call acidophilic organisms, organisms that love to live in strong acid,” said David Grinspoon, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, who was not involved in the study. “And we don’t even know the limit of how acidic an environment life can thrive in.”
Grinspoon has long been a proponent of the possibility of life existing in the clouds of Venus. Yet, like the paper’s authors, he’s cautious about declaring that life has been found.
“It’s a wonderful finding,” he said. “Of course, one needs to exercise the right amount of skepticism.”
But, he said, the findings suggest there’s something replenishing the phosphine that can’t be accounted for.
“It’s not enough to say, ‘Oh, there could have been a source millions of years ago, and then it’s hanging around.’ No, it doesn’t hang around,” Grinspon said. “So there has to be a continuous source. It’s like, you walk into a house and the bathtub has water in it, but the drain is open. So either the faucet is on or the faucet was just on.”
An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus. 0:37
Life existing in clouds isn’t without precedent. On Earth, there are bacteria that get swept up into our atmosphere and can even be carried across continents. But eventually, the bacteria settles back down to the surface. On Venus, however, the hypothesis is that the microbes might have quick reproductive rates, where there would be constant replenishment in the permanent cloud deck.
“It doesn’t really matter if some of them are falling out to their deaths, because they are sort of restocking themselves,” Grinspoon said. “Think of it as a pond where people were fishing out of it: If the fish are reproducing fast enough, or it’s being restocked or whatever, then it doesn’t mean you don’t say, ‘Oh, well, they’re gonna run out of fish because it’s being fished.’ No, there’s a steady state population. And that’s the picture that we potentially have of life in the clouds of Venus.”
WATCH |MIT astronomers discuss possible signs of life on Venus
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But that doesn’t mean an alternate explanation doesn’t exist.
“We already know that there are weird things going on in Venus’s atmosphere,” said Nick Cowan, professor in the departments of Physics and Earth & Planetary Sciences at McGill University, who was also not involved in the study. “And so the most likely scenario is that this is just weird chemistry happening in Venus’s atmosphere rather than a whole new branch of life in its clouds.
“Every year we discover all sorts of new, exciting atmospheric science, atmospheric physics, atmospheric chemistry happening in the solar system and in planets orbiting other stars. And so absolutely, they did their due diligence and they ruled out everything that we currently know of.”
Interactive | Looking at Venus in 3D
Even if it is some new process that we don’t yet understand, Cowan said that the findings are exciting for astronomers like himself who are studying the atmospheres of other planets.
It’s something Greaves echoes.
“I am really hoping for life,” she said. “I will be really excited if people tell me this is just some other really exotic chemistry going on in the atmosphere, but I’ll be mostly excited if it’s life.”
Now, the researchers are hoping to gather more follow-up observations. Only a mission to Venus with instruments that could detect the possible microbes would provide an answer as to how the phosphine is being produced.
If the findings support the presence of microbes, it opens up a whole new world in the search for life in the universe.
“We’ve always wanted to know, are we alone in the universe? Now to most of us, that means we’re hoping there are intelligent beings out there, but we have to start somewhere,” Seager said. “And if there is a second genesis of life, somewhere that we can find like in our solar system, it means that life should be very common.
“It really gives us hope that life is prevalent not only in our corner of the galaxy, but throughout the galaxy and the universe.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
