Venus Update, continued:
Venus may host life in its sulfuric-acid-rich clouds. Phosphine, a biomarker, has been detected in the upper atmosphere of Venus by the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and the Atacama ALMA array in Chile. In this part of the atmosphere, the pressure is at one bar, the same that we feel on Earth at sea level, and the temperature is about 68 degrees F. The amount of phosphine detected suggests that there may be anaerobic microbes living in the clouds of Venus, assuming that they produce phosphine gas at the same rate as this type of organism does on Earth. Currently, other processes for producing this amount of phosphene on Venus are not known. This discovery is based on the work of researchers from Cardiff University, University of Manchester, and MIT.
References
“Venus: Earth’s Evil Twin or Just Misunderstood” by Dr. Sue Smrekar, JPL/Caltech Research Scientist and currently Deputy Director of NASA’s Mars Insight Mission.
“Akatsuki reveals a giant cloud disruption unnoticed for 35 years on Venus” by JAXA’s Akatsuki Venus Orbiter observations, Dr. Javier Peralta, JAXA International Top Young Fellowship Researcher.
“How waves and turbulence maintain the super-rotation of Venus’ atmosphere” by Dr. Takeshi Horinouchi, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental and Earth Science, Hokkaido University.
“Volcanism on Venus: Evidence of Young Volcanism” by Dr Justin Filiberto, Lunar and Planetary Institute.
“Variations of sulphur dioxide at the cloud top of Venus’s dynamic atmosphere” by Dr. Emmanuel Marcq, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines.
“Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus” by team from Cardiff University, University of Manchester, and MIT.
Features
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