Scientists Have Stumbled Upon Possibilities of Extraterrestrial Life In Venus

MIT Technology Review

Recent discoveries led scientists to believe that they have detected signs of life on Venus, after they came across phosphine in the planet – a compound only produced when there is organic matter that has been broken down. The amount of phosphine on Venus is so high that there is no other explanation or process as to why it is there.

Nature Astronomy recently published an article about these discoveries, which were led by an international team of researchers headed by Jane Greaves from Cardiff University. In their report, the researchers admitted that the present of phosphine “is not robust evidence for life, only for anomalous and unexplained chemistry,” and further studies should be conducted to confirm all theories.


Phosphine can be created by humans through industrial processes, but the only way this can occur in nature is if it is caused by anaerobic organisms such as bacteria and microbes. Since only organic life can create this compound, scientists conclude that it is a “biosignature,” meaning that there is life present in this planet.

Venus’ surface is so hot and acidic which makes it highly unlikely that intelligent life would be able to exist in this planet, although some researchers theorise that species found on different planets would have a completely different composition than what we have here on earth, making other environments habitable for them.

Astronomy Magazine

Life on Venus could very be likely various microorganisms that live in the planet’s upper cloud decks that are believed to be the most habitable part, but as of late, there is little known about this area.

A fellow author of the paper, Emily Drabek-Maunder, astrophysicist from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, spoke to the Independent saying:

“Either phosphine is produced by some sort of chemical or geological process that no-one knows about – or there could be a biological reason. Our study isn’t conclusive that this is evidence of life. However, what is exciting about it is that we’ve found this rare gas in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Our team can’t explain the amount of phosphine that we’ve found, through our current understanding of the planet. When we try to model what’s happening in the atmosphere – volcanic activity, sunlight, or even lightning – nothing recreates the amount of phosphine gas that we’ve seen.”

This report that has caused an excitement in the scientific community all happened by accident. While researchers were looking for different compounds and their levels on Venus to establish a baseline, they came across this discovery. While nobody expected to find any phosphine, when they saw it in their initial studies, they decided to do further research.


David Clements, another author on the paper and scientist at the Imperial College London said:

“We had no expectation there was actually going to be any there. It turned from a ‘let’s try this, it’s an interesting problem, and we can set some parameters for what needs to be done’, into ‘my goodness, we’ve found it, what on Earth does that mean?’”

Literally speaking… What on earth does that mean? The possibility of extraterrestrial life on another planet.

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