Venus: Scientists Discover Molecules Only Made by Living Things in Planet's Atmosphere

By Adam Barnhardt

Nearly three years ago, scientists discovered a chemical gas in the atmosphere of Venus pointing towards the possibility of alien microbes living in some form on the planet. Now that researchers have time to further assess the data, the microbes might be more prevalent than initially thought. The gas in question is called phosphine and here on Earth, it's only made from living microorganisms.

Led by Professor Jane Greaves, a research team at the University of Cardiff has observed phosphines in the Venusian atmosphers on five separate occassions.

"We've made significant progress since we obtained the initial data in 2017," Greaves said in a chat with IFLScience. "We have now discovered phosphine on five separate occasions, allowing us to analyze its behavior. The focus is no longer solely on finding it; it's about understanding how it changes over time and what implications that might have."

Using Hawaii's James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), Greaves and her team managed to find phosphines in the lower parts of Venus' atmosphere, suggesting living organisms could be residing in a level at or below the planet's clouds.

"Finding it there shows that there really is a source either in the clouds or below the clouds," Greaves continued. "And that's really interesting because the clouds are the interesting part… because there might be a possibility, a long shot, that there might be some kind of living organisms there." 

It's far from confirmation that alien organisms do, in fact, live on Venus, but Greaves hopes to continue researching the scenario in future studies. 

Related:

"The Phosphine seems to be only varying at most by maybe up to about twice as much, or down to about half as much. It is not really variable, and I think that's important in the context of interpretations," Greaves concluded.

For additional space and cosmic stories, check out our ComicBook Invasion hub here.

Trending Now: