Is Their Life On… Venus?
- Authors: Kotsurbenko O.R1
-
Affiliations:
- Yugra State University
- Issue: No 3 (2021)
- Pages: 6-20
- Section: Articles
- URL: https://journals.eco-vector.com/0044-3948/article/view/628743
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7868/S0044394821030014
- ID: 628743
Cite item
Open Access
Access granted
Subscription or Fee Access
Abstract
For a long time Venus has not been among space bodies to search for life on. Extremely high temperature and pressure on its surface, the atmosphere made of fine droplets of sulphuric acid were seemingly unsuited for Earth-type organisms to live in. However, new data and theoretical models made Venus more significant for astrobiologists. Of main interest is Venusian cloud deck, 20–25 km thick. Inspite of harsh environment, some of the Earth microorganisms – so-called extremophiles — could have survived there. Astrobiological experiments are envisaged in the Russian space program of Venus studies, which includes sending spacecraft to the planet in 2028–2030s. The goals of these experiments are to look for various biomarkers in the clouds, to answer the question whether there is life on Venus?
References
- Morowitz H. and Sagan C. (1967). Life in the clouds of Venus? In Nature (Vol. 215. Issue 5107. Р. 1259–1260). Nature Publishing Group. https://doi.org/10.1038/2151259a0.
- Limaye S.S. et al. Venus’ spectral signatures and the potential for life in the clouds. Astrobiology. 18, 1181–1198 (2018).
- Kotsyurbenko O.R., Cordova Jr. J.A., Belov A.A., Cheptsov V.S., Khrunyk J., Kölbl D., Kryuchkova M.O., Milojevic T., Mogul R., Sasaki S., Słowik G.P., Snytnikov V., Vorobyova E.A. (2021) Exobiology of Venus clouds: new insights into habitability through terrestrial models and methods of detection. Astrobiology. In press.
- Seager S., Petkowski J.J., Gao P., Bains W., Bryan N.C., Ranjan S., & Greaves J. (2020). The Venusian Lower Atmosphere Haze as a Depot for Desiccated Microbial Life: A Proposed Life Cycle for Persistence of the Venusian Aerial Biosphere. Astrobiology. doi: 10.1089/ast.2020.2244
- Greaves J.S., Richards A.M.S., Bains W. et al. Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus. Nat Astron (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4.
- Joseph R.G. (2019) Life on Venus and the interplanetary transfer of biota from Earth. Astrophys Space Sci. 364: 191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-019-3678-x.
Supplementary files
