Venus: Signs of Life

By Savvy Sachsenmaier

Once upon a time, ancient civilizations lifted their eyes to the heavens and saw what they once referred to as "Earth's Sister Planet": Venus. With its brilliant blue color and a size that they believed to be similar to Earth's, Venus was once speculated to be a similar planet to our own. Many years later, modern-day astronomers hold the common knowledge that Venus is far from being Earth's twin. With its acid rain, thousands of volcanoes, and temperatures hot enough to incinerate many meteors before they can even hit the surface, Venus was low on the list in our search for habitability in the Solar System. One of the primary habitability conditions that scientists look for is an object with liquid water on the surface. Venus (which is often given the nickname of "hell planet") did not meet that criteria. Thus, the planet was dismissed.

Until now.

On Monday, September 14th of 2020, astronomers conducting research with Cardiff University detected a very special gas in the atmosphere of Venus: phosphine. Phosphine is a gas produced by various types of bacteria here on Earth, and scientists are trying to weigh out any other possible explanations of how it could have ended up in the atmosphere of Venus. Several hypotheses were proposed, but majority of evidence continues to point to the simplest conclusion: some form of extremophile bacteria could possibly exist in the atmosphere of Venus.

Personally, that is the conclusion that I myself am inclined to believe. Invoking the principle of Occam's Razor, which states that the simplest conclusion is most likely the correct one, I find myself personally convinced that extremophile bacteria is the cause of the phosphine in Venus' atmosphere. Scientists have already observed extremophile bacteria that can survive with extremely minimal water, so I don't think it's much of a stretch to conclude that there could be extremophile bacteria living off of the very scarce water droplets in the atmosphere of Venus. That being said, the discovery of such an extremophile would have significant implications in our search for habitability and would likely lead to a reassessment of the criteria astronomers are currently looking for.