Venus is far from what we might think of as hospitable because of the acidic atmosphere. A new study supports the idea that there could be life in the clouds.
It is possible that life would be able to survive on this hostile world if the droplets of sulfuric acid in the clouds of Venus could be neutralized.
When Venus passed by in the 1970s, she detected the biological production of ammonia, which is clues to the chemical pathway. The study states that ammonia could be dissolved into the acid droplets. This process would turn some of the acid into salts, which would make life easier.
The researchers wrote in their paper that the clouds are not more acidic than some environments that harbor life. Life could be making its own environment on Venus.
An illustration of life in the clouds. J. Petkowska is a person.
Ammonia shouldn't occur in large quantities on Venus because it would be difficult to get hydrogen in other reactions. The researchers suggest that life might have chemical advantages to overcome this, accounting for the ammonia signal that we've recorded on Venus.
There are other anomalies, such as higher-than- expected levels of water vapor, and non-spherical particles that don't match the round droplets of sulfuric acid. The strange occurrences could be explained by life on Venus.
In our own stomachs, ammonia can be used to make it more hospitable because of the acidic environment. It checks out on paper.
According to the researchers' calculations, meteorite strikes, volcanic eruptions, and lightning are all possible sources of ammonia on Venus, but they wouldn't produce enough of it. There is a chance that biological life could.
Sara Seager, planetary scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says that no life could survive in the Venus droplets. The point is, maybe some life is there, and is modifying its environment so that it is still alive.
It's an interesting hypothesis that fits the observations we have right now, but it's not saying that there is life on Venus. The researchers have put together a list of more checks that future Venus probe missions can make to test the theory.
There is more to this discussion about Venus. There are also suggestions that the atmosphere may contain phosphine, which could be a sign of biological life, but we're going to have to wait for a closer look at the planet.
Seager says thatVenus has unexplained atmospheric anomalies. It leaves room for the possibility of life.
The research has been published.
