New signs of life on Venus

The sister planet to earth, venus. Scientists are constantly scanning and recording the other 7 planets for any sign of new information. Back in 2017 astronomer Jane Greaves was alone in her office at Cardiff University when a new signal of phosphine came through on her screen. If you don’t know what phosphine is, it’s an extremely toxic gas to any living thing that breathes oxygen and was commonly during World War 1 for a chemical war agent. 

If you don’t know why this is so shocking to astronomers around the world here’s why, phosphine is made of three hydrogen atoms and one phosphorus atom. For phosphine to even exist it needs the perfect temperature and a whole lot of hydrogen. After different MIT teams took more scans of venus they found some dud volcanoes and meteors but absolutely no way there could be that much produced. The surface of Venus is about 698K degrees, making it pretty much incapable of life. For this phosphine to be produced it would have to have the perfect temperature such as 30-37 miles above the surface of venus hidden in the clouds.

Even if, Venus isn’t a normal environment, it’s clouds are made of sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid destroys all DNA and proteins as we know as far as life on earth. According to CNN writer Sara Seager “Any life in the Venusian clouds would have to be made up of building blocks different from Earth life, or be protected inside a shell made up of sulfuric acid-resistant material such as wax, graphite, sulfur, or something else.”  After many teams working together to get newer scans there was even more phosphine! 

The universe is bigger than our minds can comprehend and the search still continues for new signs of life. This planet of love and beauty may hold new information proving that alien life doesn’t sound too insane at all.