Venus Has Potentially Habitable Clouds
Despite how toxic the Venusian atmosphere is to us, it could—maaaybe—be hospitable for some life. In 2020, there was a big kerfuffle when researchers thought they detected phosphine—a gas produced by some organisms, and thus considered a biosignature—in the planet’s atmosphere. Those results could not be replicated, but the story won’t really be over until DAVINCI+ gets a whiff of the atmospheric chemistry as it descends through Venus’s skies. “What makes planet atmospheres so interesting is that, if there is life on the planet, understanding the atmosphere is pretty much the only way to detect that life,” said Clara Sousa-Silva, a quantum astrochemist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian, in an email. So, we’ll see how this all shakes out in the 2030s. Good things come to those who wait.
More: Why Venus is Soon to Be the Most Exciting Place in the Solar System
