The discovery of two mysterious gases on Venus raises the urgent question: Could there be life on our fiery neighbor? Astronomers announced at a scientific meeting in Hull, UK, that the gases phosphine and ammonia have been detected on the planet.

Phosphine

Living on Venus?

“So if you found this on another planet, you would almost have to infer that there are bacteria or similar organisms producing this phosphine gas,” says van den Berg. However, he stresses that this is not yet the case. The gases may also be produced by other, non-biological processes. “There could be all sorts of geological processes, like volcanoes, that produce this gas. They don’t do that on Earth, but this is another planet where things could be different.”

strange hell

“It’s not something you just do,” says van den Berg. “You have to do a thorough investigation of all these other processes.” He also explains Venus’s extreme “hellish” climate: “It has a very thick, very hot atmosphere. The pressure is the same as 3,000 feet underwater here on Earth. It’s also very hot, over 450 degrees.”

Ever had a nice planet?

“You won’t find life there,” says van den Berg. But he speculates that once, about 700 million years ago, Venus had friendlier conditions, with oceans and a pleasant temperature and air pressure. The gases now detected may be remnants of a time when life was possible, perhaps now hidden in cooler layers of the atmosphere.

Robot mission

More research is needed to test this hypothesis. Van den Bergh points to the possibility of an unmanned mission: “A robotic mission floating high in the atmosphere could see if there are more biological traces there.” Such a mission could tell us more about the potential for life on Venus. And who knows what we might find in the atmosphere of our neighboring planet?