from Hacker News

Signs of two gases in clouds of Venus could indicate life, scientists say

by daegloe on 7/19/24, 4:14 PM with 36 comments

  • by idlewords on 7/19/24, 6:43 PM

    We had a false alarm about Venusian phosphine (as the article mentions) a few years back. It would be very exciting to get these tentative detections confirmed.

    There is a lot of microbial life on Earth living in clouds, almost all of it uncharacterized. Microbes have been found living high up into the stratosphere. At the very least, a search for life in the clouds of Venus would prompt us to learn more about this fascinating ecosystem here at home.

    Review article on terrestrial life in the stratosphere for those interested: https://www.mdpi.com/1467-3045/38/1/8

  • by blue_dragon on 7/19/24, 6:22 PM

    Makes me think the Soviets may have been correct in their obsession over Venus, if only by sheer luck.

  • by perihelions on 7/20/24, 12:43 AM

    I think it is this paper? For the phosphine detections.

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.05160 ("Venus, Phosphine and the Possibility of Life")

  • by AlexAndScripts on 7/20/24, 8:37 AM

    Hopefully the Rocket Lab mission can confirm this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Life_Finder

  • by josefritzishere on 7/19/24, 5:16 PM

    This seems really optimistic.

  • by pavel_lishin on 7/19/24, 9:31 PM

    For sci-fi fans, Stephen Baxter wrote a very cool short story about possible Venetian life. It's part of this collection, and I don't particularly want to spoil anything about it: https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?332397

  • by dvh on 7/19/24, 6:44 PM

    Hasn't phosphine been ruled out as sulphur dioxide? (Very similar peak in spectrum)

  • by windex on 7/19/24, 4:49 PM

  • by bbor on 7/19/24, 6:44 PM

    Here’s an annoying question: how would one play the discovery of Venusian life into personal gain? I’m thinking “startup/invest in space” as a starting point, but surely there’s a more fun/rediculous way.

    Let’s assume that these signals are indeed based in life, and that that life is mostly boring to laymen — some type of bacteria or lava tube denizen with minimal complexity, say