Venus’s atmosphere shows potential signs of life

Monday, September 14, 2020 - 17:30 in Astronomy & Space

Synthesized false color image of Venus, using 283-nm and 365-nm band images taken by the Venus Ultraviolet Imager (UVI). (JAXA / ISAS / Akatsuki Project Team/)For decades, Venus has been considered a broiling, radiation-bombarded toxic hellscape of a planet in which nothing can survive. But now, in an unexpected twist, a group of scientists say they have found possible signs of extraterrestrial life in a place where few had thought to look: 30 miles up high in the planet’s yellow, hazy clouds.An international team of researchers may have found tantalizing traces of phosphine, a potential sign of life, on the planet next door. “With high confidence, we have detected the phosphine on Venus, which was very unexpected and very exciting,” Jane Greaves, an astronomy professor at Cardiff University and lead author of the study, told reporters at a press briefing on Monday. “This is very encouraging for the hypothesis of...

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