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EVEN THOUGH ITS SURFACE IS A HORROR SHOW, LIFE COULD THRIVE ELSEWHERE ON VENUS

Space19 June 2023
By Michelle Starr
False-color image of Venus in ultraviolet. (PLANET-C Project Team)

Venus, but for some quirk of planetary evolution, could have been Earth or vice
versa.



The two planets share many similarities, but where Earth is moist and temperate,
Venus has a scorching hot surface shrouded with a thick atmosphere of toxic and
acidic fumes.



Nevertheless, that atmosphere is not entirely inhospitable, according to new
research. Although the chance microbes might thrive in such an environment is
slim, it's plausible enough to warrant considering.



"The clouds can support a biomass that could readily be detectable by future
astrobiology-focused space missions from its impact on the atmosphere," write a
team led by molecular biologist William Bains of Cardiff University in the UK
and MIT in the US in a paper published in Astrobiology.



"Although we consider the prospects for finding life on Venus to be speculative,
they are not absent. The scientific reward from finding life in such an
un-Earthlike environment justifies considering how observations and missions
should be designed to be capable of detecting life if it is there."



The prospect of life on Venus has loomed large in the collective imagination of
Earth since the discovery of traces of phosphine gas in the planet's atmosphere
in 2020.



Phosphine can be produced by biological and geological processes, and its
detection has been hotly debated. The debate did ignite a keen scientific
interest in re-examining our presuppositions about Venus's habitability, or lack
thereof.



The surface itself is unlikely to be habitable to life as we know it:
Temperatures on the Venusian ground average around 464 degrees Celsius (867
Fahrenheit). Life's chemistry requires a solvent (here on Earth, that's water),
and those temperatures are incompatible with any liquid. But Venus's skies,
although much more temperate, are laced with clouds of sulfuric acid and were
not thought to be much better.

Artist's impression of hypothetical microbes living in the atmosphere of Venus.
(J. Petkowski)

Bains is a member of a team led by astronomer Sara Seager and including
biochemist Janusz Petkowski, both of MIT, investigating the possibility of life
in the Venusian atmosphere.



This team just released two new papers. A paper in PNAS by a larger group led by
Seager experimentally explores whether key molecules for life can survive in
sulfuric acid; the Astrobiology paper mentioned above examines and addresses the
arguments against Venusian habitability.



Let's talk about sulfuric acid first. Previous research from the team found that
sulfuric acid could be used by life as a solvent, but it wouldn't be life as we
know it. One major reason for that is that RNA and DNA are unstable in sulfuric
acid. But nucleic bases – the basic building blocks of RNA and DNA – might not
be, depending on what they are.



To test whether nucleic bases can remain stable in sulfuric acid, the
researchers… well, put a bunch of nucleic bases in sulfuric acid of
concentrations between 81 and 98 percent, with the remainder being water.



Adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil remained stable for several
weeks at room temperature, between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius, similar to
Venusian cloud temperatures.



So did purine and pyrimidine, as well as a compound called 2,6-diaminopurine,
which is used as a genetic base substitute for adenine by some viruses. This
means that, theoretically, at least, the same nucleic bases could hang around
quite happily in the sulfuric acid clouds of Venus.

Illustration of the large Quetzalpetlatl Corona volcanic region in Venus's
southern hemisphere. Recent evidence suggests the planet is volcanically active.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin)

"Our findings show that complex organic chemistry, including DNA nucleic acid
bases, can be stable in concentrated sulfuric acid and motivates us to design
missions that directly probe the cloud particles for the presence of organic
material," they write.



In the second paper, the team breaks down arguments against the possibility of
life, focusing heavily on whether the features of Venus's clouds and atmosphere
make the prospect of life vanishingly improbable.



The lack of water is a big hurdle since life on Earth relies upon it. This is
what the research into sulfuric acid addresses, and the researchers found that
it's not impossible that sulfuric acid takes up the role water plays here on
Earth.



Another hurdle is gravity; any mass, however small, would have difficulty
remaining aloft against the downward pressure gravity exerts. In this case, the
team found that gravity waves – just waves in the atmosphere; we have them here
on Earth – could keep a large enough population of microbes aloft to maintain a
stable biosphere. Alternatively, an effect called negative photophoresis could
use the heat generated by light to provide lift.

Artist's impression of the surface and clouds of Venus. (ESA)

Although there's not sufficient chemical energy in the Venusian atmosphere to
sustain life, there is a lot of life. Enough, according to the team's
calculations, to grow and maintain a biomass in the manner of photosynthesis or
phototrophy. Nor did the team find the lack of hydrogen or metals on Venus
enough of a barrier to completely rule out the possibility of life.



That life is worth looking for, assert the researchers. If it is there, it's
unlikely to be like anything we have living here on Earth and learning about it
could significantly enhance our understanding of the variety of ways life could
emerge in our Universe.



"While life on Venus remains speculative, and although the majority of the
community believe that there is only a small chance that there is life in the
clouds of Venus, none of the arguments rule out the possibility of life there,"
they write.



"Terrestrial life cannot survive in Venus' clouds. We encourage others to
consider Venus as a place where some highly non-terrestrial life just might live
and to explore what that life might be and how we might economically search for
it."



The papers are both open-access, and they're worth a read. They can be found on
PNAS and Astrobiology.



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