Is there life on Venus?

Scientists may have eliminated the possibility of extraterrestrial life on Venus due to extreme temperatures, volcanic activity, and acidic rain.

Josh Habka

Nov 5, 2022

6 min read

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Scientists may have eliminated the possibility of extraterrestrial life on Venus due to extreme temperatures, volcanic activity, and acidic rain. It turns out that the clouds of Venus are not made from the suitable material for supporting life - and that is why scientists are now turning instead to Jupiter. Now, in a startling twist, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cardiff University, and other institutions have observed signs that could indicate life inside Venus clouds.

What is The Temperature on Venus?

The surface temperature of Venus ranges from about 820 degrees to nearly 900 degrees F. The average surface temperature is 847 degrees F., this is hot enough to melt lead.

Although scientists at MIT have found no direct evidence of living organisms there, if what is being observed is associated with life, then it should be a kind of aerial life-form in Venus clouds -- the only livable part of an otherwise scorched, uninhabitable world. Despite features that render the planet's surface inhospitable, Venus's dense blanket of global clouds could provide mild conditions for some microbes, thanks to sunlight, nutrients, and a small quantity of water available - all the ingredients for creating tight yet habitable zones, such as the ones that are thought to exist higher up the planets thick atmosphere. Satellites orbiting Venus provide more profound views into its atmosphere and have provided clues about potentially living things that are snaking around the tight pockets high up in Venusian skies. Scientists speculated that if liquid water existed at the Venusian surface prior to the planet's warming by the runaway greenhouse effect, then microbial life could have formed on Venus, but that may not be the case.

Scientists speculate, with significant disagreement, that if life existed on Venus, a narrow strip of land is probably the only place where it could survive. Venus, says Limaye, also experiences a limited amount of UV flow through the clouds at mid- to lower levels, which further enhances its potential for containing life. Even if Venus is lifeless, Cambridge University researchers say their findings, reported in the journal Nature Communications, may prove valuable in studying similar planet's atmospheres across the galaxy and eventually uncovering life beyond our solar system. Based on many scenarios they considered, the scientists concluded there is no explanation for the phosphenes detected in our other clouds except for the existence of life.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology team followed the observations up with a thorough analysis of whether something other than life might have produced phosphine in the hospitable, sulfuric Venusian environment. The research, conducted last year, renewed hopes that Venus might be supporting life after researchers detected the phosphine gas, produced by bacteria on Earth, in more temperate clouds at Venus. A group of researchers has proposed a new theory suggesting that possible life on Venus may make its environment more hospitable. According to new research, the infernal planet Venus could have had an entirely hospitable environment within two or three billion years after the planet formed, suggesting that life could have had plenty of time to arise there.