General / Off-Topic Possible life discovered on Venus

[Morbad]

We've really had enough of microbes... how do we even kill the ones that live inside a fumigant gas? At temperatures that can melt lead? And survive intense solar radiation, with strong UV rays?

No life as we know or can reasonable infer, could survive on the surface of Venus.

The cloud layers where the potential life that is possibly responsible for this phosphine are quite mild temperature wise and not terribly harsh when it comes to UV exposure. They would also likely be dependent on a dry, low oxygen, and very low ph environment.

Indeed, one of the major hurdles for a sample return mission would likely be keeping such extremophiles alive, not finding a way to kill them. Removing them from their acidic environment or exposing them to air may well be fatal.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

To be honest I think the scientific community is plagued with seeing life everywhere in the solar system. Like in ancient times whenever people encountered something they didn't understand and said it is a miracle, likewise many unexplained phenomena are explained with life. Remember the microbes from Mars? Or crashing Cassini into Saturn because it may contaminate Enceladus with life?

I don't doubt that there must be life elsewhere in the universe, but Solar system is so unlikely that is should be only considered if we find hard evidence. By now I think the public says 'meh' whenever such news surface, despite being pretty much a bombshell, historic moment if it was proven right.

 

[Morbad]

To be honest I think the scientific community is plagued with seeing life everywhere in the solar system. Like in ancient times whenever people encountered something they didn't understand and said it is a miracle, likewise many unexplained phenomena are explained with life. Remember the microbes from Mars? Or crashing Cassini into Saturn because it may contaminate Enceladus with life?

I don't doubt that there must be life elsewhere in the universe, but Solar system is so unlikely that is should be only considered if we find hard evidence. By now I think the public says 'meh' whenever such news surface, despite being pretty much a bombshell, historic moment if it was proven right.

No one in the astrobiological community is saying that we have found life on Venus, nor has there ever been anything approaching a scientific consensus that has ever claimed to have found life elsewhere in the solar system. This is still a very exciting possible biosignature, in an area that was already deemed a potential habitat, which has now been catapulted it to the top of the list for further investigation.

Crashing Cassini into Saturn was a prudent precaution to avoid contamination, while the evidence for microbes on Mars has never been as compelling as this concentration of phosphine would be for life on Venus...every other potential biosignature we've detected also had a plausible abiotic explanation. That is not the case here, at least not yet. Life would be the most straightforward explanation for what's been observed, and if confirmed, this is about as hard evidence as can be expected until we can send missions to explore Venusian clouds.

As for the likelihood of finding extraterrestrial life in our solar system, we know that life exists on Earth pretty much anywhere and everywhere that chemistry says there is metabolic energy to be liberated; if we can think of a chemically viable cellular energy pathway, we almost invariably discover life that has evolved to take advantage of it. There are quite a few other areas in our solar system where such biochemistries could exist and we haven't even scratched the surface with our exploration thus far. We also have little ability to evaluate interstellar locales for the potential presence of life, let alone any ability to reach them.

 

[Patrick_68000]

All those venereal probes we sent to Venus will come back to bite us in the butt.

Barrier gestures, masks, social distancing, hydroalcoholic gel.

 

[Manticore]

Because if somehow some nutcase scientist team bring samples back, and it can somehow live here, and spread, making bloody phosphine toxic gas but we can't kill it, that is all she wrote for pretty much our entire planet.

They have no mission for that so, with planning, construction, execution and travel time, it won't be for another ten years at least.

Then we can all get the Andromeda Strain and die...... oh, wait.

All those venereal probes we sent to Venus will come back to bite us in the butt.

Thargoids?

Too soon?

 

[Manticore]

Sorry about the double post but this:

Because if somehow some nutcase scientist team bring samples back, and it can somehow live here, and spread, making bloody phosphine toxic gas but we can't kill it, that is all she wrote for pretty much our entire planet.

As I said above:

Thirty-one years have elapsed since the United States last sent a dedicated mission to Venus. That could soon change as NASA considers two of four missions in the late 2020s targeting Venus. One, called VERITAS, would carry a powerful radar to peer through the thick clouds and return unprecedented high-resolution images of the surface. The other, DAVINCI+, would plunge through the atmosphere, sampling the air as it descended, perhaps even able to sniff any phosphine present. NASA plans to pick at least one mission in April 2021.

The detection of phosphine in Venus' clouds is a big deal – here's how we can find out if it's a sign of life

News that Venus may harbor life has swept the globe. So how do we find out for sure? A planetary scientist explains what’s next.

theconversation.com

On any mission design timeline if they wanted to bring anything back from Venus to Earth it won't arrive here until the late 2020's. But they are thinking more about in situ research; on location if I read that article correctly. (At least that would avoid cross-contamination in both directions).

Anyway we've already got our own Andromeda Strain which is killing a significant number of people on our planet already; even as we speak.

Who's to say that the chemistry for the arsing of life on Venus (if it exists) didn't arrive on a meteor like a lot of cosmologists and exo-biologists are postulating today about the beginnings of life on Earth. We may already have the Venusian microbe (if it exists) and we just haven't identified anything cogent yet from Venus.