Production: Pablo Cantudo
The verification of the existence of life outside the Earth would undoubtedly be one of the most important milestones in the history of science, even if it is microbial life.
The journal Nature Astronomy has just published a study very recently that describes the presence of phosphine, a molecule that we could consider a sign of life in the high clouds of the atmosphere of Venus.
We interview Sergio Martín, astronomer at the ALMA telescope in Chile , a project that has participated in this discovery. Sergio emphasizes that the discovery has been detected “at the limit of the capacity of our most powerful telescope.” However, it is still one of the most important findings in the field of astrobiology.
To begin with, let’s start by clarifying that a direct detection of microbial life has not been carried out, but of a, let’s say, a waste that is produced on Earth by microorganisms, and that could indicate the presence of these microorganisms also on Venus. The most striking aspect of this finding is that it does not seem that this phosphine can be explained by other natural phenomena on the planet, for example, volcanic activity.
Phosphine (or phosphane) is a molecule that appears in high concentration in the clouds of Venus. Even so, it is much lower than on Earth, but high enough that we wonder, what is it doing there?
Venus is an extremely hostile planet for life : the surface temperature I understand is around 500 degrees Celsius. However, if they existed, the microbes that are producing the phosphine would be suspended at an altitude of about 50 to 60 kilometers in the temperate clouds of Venus.
However, if these microorganisms exist, how could they resist in such acidic environments? The acidity that bacteria support on Earth is around 5%, but on Venus it is 90%. They would also need to be able to live without oxygen, but on Earth there are organisms, the Extremophiles, that survive in very extreme conditions as well.
Since there is still the possibility that there is some technological error involved in this detection, Sergio Martín invites us to be cautious , and explains how this discovery will open the door to continue investigating possible signs of microbial life on Venus, and also in others. places in the solar system.
