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Venus-crop-main

The planet Venus is not usually what yous'd recall of every bit "habitable," with its clouds of sulfuric acid and atmospheric pressure 92 times higher than World. The surface temperature is roughly 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius), which is hot enough to melt atomic number 82, so information technology's rubber to say life as we know it could non be. However, a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the journal Astrobiology suggests at that place could be life on Venus. Well, not directly on it, just above the surface.

Scientists believe Venus was a very dissimilar, more than Earth-like world when it was younger. However, all its water evaporated into the atmosphere as the temperature shot up between 650 million and 2 billion years after its formation. Information technology took microbial life about one billion years to develop on Earth, and so it's plausible some sort of life came into existence on Venus and migrated upwardly every bit conditions on the ground worsened.

The study makes a instance that Venus' atmosphere has everything microorganisms would need to survive, and they would be protected from the worst of the planet's weather condition. The temperature and pressure need to be compatible with life to take any promise of finding microorganisms high up in Venus' choking atmosphere. According to the researchers, once you get to an altitude of xxx miles, the pressure drops to effectually 15 pounds per square inch—similar to sea level on Earth. The temperature is a toasty but tolerable 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).

The composition of the Venusian atmosphere isn't as much of a problem as you might look. On Earth, a form of organisms known as extremophiles can thrive in volcanic vents, inside rocks, and fifty-fifty in pools of acid. It'due south possible a hearty organism could feed on the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and float effectually unbothered past the clouds of acid. In the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm, "Life, uh, finds a way."

The surface of Venus captured by a Soviet Venera probe.

Nosotros don't accept any directly bear witness of life on Venus, but the study points to an interesting possibility. Venus has dark splotches in its atmosphere that shift size and location, but never completely vanish. Scientists don't however have a convincing explanation for these nighttime patches, but the University of Wisconsin team points to research that indicates the particles in these regions are the size of leaner. What if they actually are leaner-similar organisms?

The corrosive nature of Venus' atmosphere makes studying the planet hard. While we can land a rover on Mars and drive effectually for years, the Venus landers take lasted barely two hours at all-time. Perhaps in the future, loftier-distance probes will be able to survive longer on Venus and detect out if at that place really is life wafting on the cakewalk.