Venus Atmosphere: Hope Of Life In The Odds

There is a Good News for humanity! In the atmosphere of the planet Venus, second to the Sun, traces of a gas has caught the attention of the researchers eyes, and have alluded towards the possibility of life on the planet. Scientists have found traces of gas called phosphine 30 miles in the toxic atmosphere of the Earth's neighbouring planet. As the astronauts who reported the finding didn't snap any photos of the activity in the planet's atmosphere, but with the help of powerful telescopes they detected the traces of the chemical phosphine in the clouds of Venus. The scientists call this very out of the blue finding which was reported on Monday through a pair of papers by astronauts; and after much analysis, the only way to explain the source of the chemical found is to relate with something alive or microbial organisms.

Venus which is the brightest in the night sky and can be spotted rarely with naked eyes, just after the dusk from Earth. The atmosphere of the morning and evening star Venus, is composed of 96.5% Carbon dioxide gas, 3.5% Nitrogen gas, and traces of other gases, sulphur dioxide gas as one them. Also known as Earth's sister or twin because of similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun, and bulk composition; many scientists think that Venus possessed atmosphere and water but it is indeed radically different from Earth in other aspects.If this discovery of this chemical, phosphine, in the atmosphere of Venus can be confirmed by additional telescope observations and future space missions, it could turn the heed of scientists and researchers towards the neighbouring mysterious world in our solar system. With every discovery and it's hypothesis, comes an ample of questions attached to it. Some researchers have been questioning this finding and pointed out that the gas could be a result of some unexplained atmospheric or geological processes happening in the planet which still remains mysterious.

Venus is a planet which comes across as a challenge for the researchers as it doesn't welcome any visiting which makes it hard to study on it. Surface temperatures average more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit while the dense atmosphere exerts a pressure of more than 1,300 pounds per square inch on anything at its surface. On Earth it is the equivalent to being 3,000 feet underwater in the ocean. Nonetheless, some space programs have tried dozens of robotic missions to Venus, but only to fail as the atmospheric conditions on the planet even melts and destroys the metal within minutes of the landing there. Till the date, after all the attempts taken, only two managed to directly capture images of the planet’s surface.

Venus is being studied by only one probe, the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki. On Earth, phosphine is found in biological environments associated with anaerobic organisms. It is also found in our intestines, in the feces of badgers and penguins, and in some deep sea worms, among others. But on the planets like Earth and Venus, according to the researchers, there is not enough energy to produce abundant amounts of phosphine in the same way. Howbeit, anaerobic life or microbial organisms that don’t require or use oxygen, seems very capable at producing it. India’s space agency has also proposed a mission, a private rocket company, Rocket Lab, in the coming years. After the researches done, and rising curiosity with various questions, NASA, which earlier has declined to fund various Venus missions in past decades have announced in February that it would consider a pair of proposed spacecraft among four finalists competing for a round of funding.