Life not possible on Venus? There might be no life on Venus, concludes a a recent study published by scientists at the University of Cambridge in the UK. The study notes that the sulphur-rich clouds in the atmosphere of Venus show no hint of microbes eating or excreting, essentially shutting down speculations that it may harbour any kind of extraterrestrial life.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications by a team of three researchers Paul B. Rimmer, Sean Jordan and Oliver Shorttle. The researchers had analysed the biochemistry of the thick, sulphur-rich clouds present in Venus under the study.
The researchers were looking for “fingerprints" that any potential cloud-dwelling organisms would leave as a result of their feeding and excretion. However, they failed to find any of such clues.
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The Study: Key Highlights
- The researchers used atmospheric and biochemical models to study chemical reactions that are expected to occur on Venus to conduct their research.
- The concentrations of sulphur dioxide are higher in the clouds closer to Venus' surface but they diminish with altitude.
The researchers initially thought that the sulphur dioxide levels were dropping with altitude as it was being eaten by cloud-dwelling microbes. However, they found that their hypothesis did not work after running a few models. - The study's first author Sean Jordan said that they had looked at the sulphur-based ‘food’ available in the Venusian atmosphere and found that it was not anything one would want to eat.
- However, the sulphur dioxide is the main available energy source on the planet. If it was being consumed by any kind of life, the evidence of it would have been visible through specific chemicals being lost and gained in the atmosphere.
- The study's author also mentioned that if life was responsible for the sulphur dioxide levels on Venus, it would break every known fact about Venus’s atmospheric chemistry.
- The researchers spent last two years studying the sulphur chemistry in the clouds of Venus. They were trying to research whether there is a way to make life a potential explanation for the unusual behaviour of sulphur in the atmosphere of Venus.
Life not possible on Venus?
The study authors said that they wanted life to be a potential explanation for the weird sulphur chemistry in the clouds of Venus but when they ran the models, it did not come out as a viable solution. However, even if life isn't responsible for the unusual behavior of sulphur, it is still a problem to be solved.
Significance
The speculation that Venus harbours microbial life among its Sulphurous clouds has been rife for decades. However, now the Cambridge University researchers have said that the unusual behaviour of the Sulphur clouds in the Venus atmosphere cannot be explained by 'aerial' form of extra-terrestrial life.
The study could be useful to study atmospheres of similar planets throughout the galaxy and the eventual detection of life outside our Solar System.
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