Another study suggests that the clouds of Venus may be habitable.

Could life forms create ‘habitable pockets’ in Venus’ toxic clouds? A new study, conducted by researchers at MIT, Cardiff University and Cambridge University, suggests that, in theory at least, this might happen. The authors concluded that if there were living organisms in our neighbors, they could neutralize the acidity of the clouds, creating areas to live in.

It’s hard to imagine a world with more aggressive conditions than Venus: the planet has an atmosphere full of carbon dioxide and extremely high surface temperatures, which prevent the survival of life as we know it. However, in the atmosphere of Venus, there are some chemical signatures that have puzzled scientists for years. One of them is ammonia, a gas that was identified there during the 1970s.

The most remarkable thing about the compound’s existence is that ammonia cannot be produced by any chemical process known on the planet. “Ammonia shouldn’t be on Venus,” said study co-author Sarah Seeger. “It contains hydrogen, and there is very little hydrogen there; any gas that does not match the context of its environment is automatically suspected to have been produced by life.”

In the new study, the authors modeled a range of chemical processes that showed that if there was indeed ammonia in there, the gas should trigger several more reactions. These processes would cause a domino effect of reactions that would neutralize droplets of sulfuric acid, which are the cause of most of the chemical anomalies of the flower.

Venus cloud transformations

They also came up with an explanation for the presence of ammonia. For the authors, the most plausible hypothesis is for the compound’s biological origin, and according to them, “the chemistry suggests that life might create its own environment on Venus.” In addition, they also considered that this scenario could explain other anomalies in the clouds there: If there were organisms producing ammonia, chemical reactions would also produce oxygen.

In clouds, ammonia dissolves in sulfuric acid droplets and neutralizes the acidity, forming relatively habitable droplets and causing sulfur dioxide to dissolve in the surroundings as well. We’re still considering this scenario, perhaps the presence of ammonia is behind other strange properties of Venus’ clouds, which not even volcanic eruptions, lightning, and other processes can explain.

It is worth noting that this does not necessarily mean that There is life on this planet. “There are a lot of other challenges that life must overcome if you are to live in the clouds of Venus,” said co-author William Bynes. After all, there is hardly any water there, and all life as we know it needs it. “If there is life out there, neutralizing the acid will make the clouds a little more habitable than we thought,” he said.

The article containing the study results was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; via: EurekAlert