Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds

"High in the toxic atmosphere of the planet Venus, astronomers on Earth have
discovered signs of what might be life.

If the discovery is confirmed by additional telescope observations and future
space missions, it could turn the gaze of scientists toward one of the brightest
objects in the night sky. Venus, named after the Roman goddess of beauty, roasts
at temperatures of hundreds of degrees and is cloaked by clouds that contain
droplets of corrosive sulfuric acid. Few have focused on the rocky planet as a
habitat for something living.

Instead, for decades, scientists have sought signs of life elsewhere, usually
peering outward to Mars and more recently at Europa, Enceladus and other icy
moons of the giant planets.

The astronomers, who reported the finding on Monday in a pair of papers, have
not collected specimens of Venusian microbes, nor have they snapped any pictures
of them. But with powerful telescopes, they have detected a chemical — phosphine
— in the thick Venus atmosphere. After much analysis, the scientists assert that
something now alive is the only explanation for the chemical’s source.

Some researchers question this hypothesis, and they suggest instead that the gas
could result from unexplained atmospheric or geologic processes on a planet that
remains mysterious. But the finding will also encourage some planetary
scientists to ask whether humanity has overlooked a planet that may have once
been more Earthlike than any other world in our solar system.

“This is an astonishing and ‘out of the blue’ finding,� said Sara Seager, a
planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author
of the papers (one published in Nature Astronomy and another submitted to the
journal Astrobiology). “It will definitely fuel more research into the
possibilities for life in Venus’s atmosphere.�"

See:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/s...fe-clouds.html