A recent discovery recalled Venus as a potential haven for life. An international team led by Dave Clements, a chemical engineer at the University of London, reaffirmed the existence of phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere, which was first noticed by work with the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes back in 2020. Scientists struggled to explain the presence of the gas because it seemed chemically implausible.

The likelihood that a previously unknown chemical or biological process on Venus produces phosphine makes the presence of this gas suggestive of life from an astrobiological point of view, though in principle it doesn’t prove that life is present. To be clear, the existence of extraterrestrial life has not been confirmed, but we are facing the strong presumption that it deserves serious scientific investigation.

It was further complicated by their detection of another classic biomarker, ammonia, which is similarly excreted by animals on Earth. Both gasses are enriched in Venus’s clouds, which could be habitable, given the presence of liquid water and an oxidizing atmosphere like Earth’s.

The broader consequences are potentially huge. If confirmed, the results would mean rewriting the textbooks, expanding our definition of where life can be found and broadening the Universe for astrobiologists. ‘I haven’t been able to rule out exotic, non-life chemical reactions,’ notes Clements. A definite attribution to life will require more work.

Only future missions like MIT’s Morning Star Missions will truly explore Venus’s mysterious clouds and atmosphere, to find definitively if something really could survive on this strange neighbor.

The fact that the chance of finding life of the most very slim, falling somewhere in the range of 0.01 to 0.10, makes it nonetheless a question we mustn’t pass up: ‘Even if it’s a 10% chance then that’s something that really reserves a lot of extra careful study,’ Clements says. The search for life beyond Earth has entered its new frontier. Venus seems very much like part of it.

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