Aliens? Life on Venus?

Last month, on September 14th, a team of astronomers claimed to have detected a chemical known as phosphine lurking in the atmosphere of Venus. While their discovery still needs to be backed up, it could mean that we aren’t the only ones living in the solar system... 

What is phosphine? 

Before we talk about the possibility of extraterrestrial life (what scientists call aliens) let’s first discuss what phosphine is. Phosphine is a flammable (meaning it catches on fire easily) and very toxic chemical, and it can be made in three ways: by humans, by natural reactions, and by other life forms. Firstly, humans make and use phosphine for smartphones and a variety of other things.

 Secondly, natural reactions in the environment can sometimes create phosphine, such as the chemical reactions that occur in the extreme atmosphere of Jupiter or Saturn.  And lastly, phosphine can come from other life, such as bacteria and other tiny organisms. It actually isn’t fully known how these organisms make phosphine, but scientists agree that they are involved in its creation some way. In fact, bacteria on earth are responsible for the phosphine in our own atmosphere. 

Life on Venus? 

So, could this discovery of phosphine mean that there are other organisms living on Venus? Maybe. But like any good scientist, we can’t jump to conclusions - we have to consider all the facts. First of all, astronomers still need to send missions to Venus to confirm that phosphine really is in the atmosphere. The scientists who claimed to have detected phosphine made this discovery with special telescopes - and they could have made a mistake. Also, like I mentioned earlier, phosphine doesn’t just have to be created by life. It can also be created by chemical reactions, and we’ve seen this happen in the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn. The phosphine on Venus could just be the result of reactions we don’t know about. However, scientists don’t think this is the case. Venus doesn’t have an extreme atmosphere like Jupiter, so it’s unlikely that phosphine would just occur without any life creating it. But, just like a good scientist, we have to accept the fact that we just don’t know for sure yet if phosphine is actually on Venus, or if it means that life could be there.  

 What next? 

In order to prove whether life really exists on Venus, we need to send missions there. These would be probes or rovers that travel to Venus to collect data. But, because Venus’ atmosphere is so hot and dense, not many spacecraft have been sent to land there. The last one was the Vega 2, sent in 1984 by Russia. Also, until recently, Mars has been one of the most popular planets for missions. One big reason why Mars is so popular is because people think there could be life there. Mars has a calmer atmosphere than Venus and is believed to have once contained oceans, which might have held life. But, with the recent possibility of life on Venus, this long overlooked planet might just become the solar system’s newest celebrity.  And who knows - maybe in the next couple of years, we could even find out that we aren’t the only life in the universe...