Mystery of ‘alien life on Venus’ may finally be solved thanks to shock new study
ALIEN lifeforms may not be responsible for Venus' strange atmospheric composition, according to new research.
A study published in December 2021 proposed that extraterrestrial life may exist on Venus.
Researchers from Cardiff University, MIT, and Cambridge University cited Venusian clouds with ammonia as the reasoning behind this theory.
They added that while Venus itself is too hot to host life forms, the clouds could theoretically be home to alien microbial bacteria.
However, now a new study conducted by scientists at Cambridge University found that this may not be the case.
The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, claims that abundant life forms typically leave behind chemical fingerprints.
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Yet, the scientists could find no such evidence on Venus' surface or its atmosphere.
"We've spent the past two years trying to explain the weird sulphur chemistry we see in the clouds of Venus," said co-author Dr Paul Rimmer from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences.
"Life is pretty good at weird chemistry, so we've been studying whether there's a way to make life a potential explanation for what we see."
For the study, the researchers looked at both atmospheric and biochemical models to assess chemical reactions that occur on Venus.
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The models also focused heavily on Venus' high levels of sulphur dioxide, which somehow gets 'sucked out' of the atmosphere at higher altitudes.
"We looked at the sulphur-based 'food' available in the Venusian atmosphere – it's not anything you or I would want to eat, but it is the main available energy source," said Sean Jordan from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, the paper's lead author.
"If that food is being consumed by life, we should see evidence of that through specific chemicals being lost and gained in the atmosphere."
However, there is no evidence of this – and if life is somehow responsible for a drop in sulphur dioxide levels, there would be other reactions happening that simply aren't, researchers said.
This lack of evidence doesn't necessarily rebuke that life exists on Venus.
But, if life were to exist on Venus despite the researchers' findings, it would "break everything we know about Venus's atmospheric chemistry," said Jordan.
"We wanted life to be a potential explanation, but when we ran the models, it isn't a viable solution," Jordan added.
"But if life isn't responsible for what we see on Venus, it's still a problem to be solved -- there's lots of strange chemistry to follow up on."
Researchers are hoping that Nasa's new James Webb Space Telescope will help to answer some of their questions regarding Venus and its odd atmosphere.
Webb, which will start sending back images later this year, is able to detect and study sulphur molecules on other planets.
Last year, Nasa also announced plans to launch the missions VERITAS and DAVINCI+ in 2027 and 2029, respectively, to explore Venus' chemical composition, evolution, and geology.
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"To understand why some planets are alive, we need to understand why other planets are dead," said co-author Dr. Oliver Shorttle from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences and Institute of Astronomy.
"If life somehow managed to sneak into the Venusian clouds, it would totally change how we search for chemical signs of life on other planets."