stevep
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Post by stevep on Sept 15, 2020 14:59:43 GMT
Now here's one that's certainly relevant to the thread topic. Possible signs of life on Venus
Heard about it yesterday and they did a very quick "Sky at Night" on it. Not conclusive yet but looks very interesting.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Sept 15, 2020 15:29:03 GMT
One of the linked videos when I ran through that, Have we found life on Venus, has more detail on the issue. the guy is rather chatty and very 'excited' something he repeats several times in the 1st couple of minutes. However gives a bit further background of the issues. As he and a colleague he talks to agrees there's still a lot to check up on simply because of previous mistaken 'discovery of life' or other unusual events. Definitely wasn't thinking of something being discovered on Venus however. 1st we need to confirm phosphine's presence in the Venusian atmosphere and then rule out any alternative to some form of life producing it, which could be a hard job.
Must admit I misheard initially and when they said Phosphine [PH3] I thought they said Phosgene the WWI poisoned gas!
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archibald
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The PRC was standing on the edge of an abyss. And Mao said "let's make a Great Leap Forward"
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Post by archibald on Sept 17, 2020 15:52:52 GMT
One of the linked videos when I ran through that, Have we found life on Venus, has more detail on the issue. the guy is rather chatty and very 'excited' something he repeats several times in the 1st couple of minutes. However gives a bit further background of the issues. As he and a colleague he talks to agrees there's still a lot to check up on simply because of previous mistaken 'discovery of life' or other unusual events. Definitely wasn't thinking of something being discovered on Venus however. 1st we need to confirm phosphine's presence in the Venusian atmosphere and then rule out any alternative to some form of life producing it, which could be a hard job.
Must admit I misheard initially and when they said Phosphine [PH3] I thought they said Phosgene the WWI poisoned gas!
They are close cousins, actually. Both are deadly poisons for oxygen-breathing living beings - including very unfortunate WWI soldiers.
The possible critters on Venus are extremophiles / tardigrade things... and they are renowned to thrieve on the most insane places, breathing poison, eating impossible things.
By some amazingly lucky coincidence, the European-Japanese probe Beppi-Colombo on its way to Mercury, will make two flybys of Venus, this year and next year. And it has an instrument that can "smell" phosphorus inside Venus atmosphere ! they lost no time exploiting that opportunity. If it fails on the first flyby, they will try again next year.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Sept 18, 2020 11:24:33 GMT
One of the linked videos when I ran through that, Have we found life on Venus, has more detail on the issue. the guy is rather chatty and very 'excited' something he repeats several times in the 1st couple of minutes. However gives a bit further background of the issues. As he and a colleague he talks to agrees there's still a lot to check up on simply because of previous mistaken 'discovery of life' or other unusual events. Definitely wasn't thinking of something being discovered on Venus however. 1st we need to confirm phosphine's presence in the Venusian atmosphere and then rule out any alternative to some form of life producing it, which could be a hard job.
Must admit I misheard initially and when they said Phosphine [PH3] I thought they said Phosgene the WWI poisoned gas!
They are close cousins, actually. Both are deadly poisons for oxygen-breathing living beings - including very unfortunate WWI soldiers.
The possible critters on Venus are extremophiles / tardigrade things... and they are renowned to thrieve on the most insane places, breathing poison, eating impossible things.
By some amazingly lucky coincidence, the European-Japanese probe Beppi-Colombo on its way to Mercury, will make two flybys of Venus, this year and next year. And it has an instrument that can "smell" phosphorus inside Venus atmosphere ! they lost no time exploiting that opportunity. If it fails on the first flyby, they will try again next year.
Thanks. Sounds like Beppi-Colombo could have a big bonus even before it starts its primary mission. The 1st Venus flypass is due on the 15th Oct so we won't have to wait long to see if it can detect anything. BepiColombo-Schedule gives the full scheduled for anybody's who's interested.
Steve
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archibald
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The PRC was standing on the edge of an abyss. And Mao said "let's make a Great Leap Forward"
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Post by archibald on Sept 18, 2020 13:03:21 GMT
(impersonating Montgomery Burns voice)
Excellent !
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Sept 23, 2020 13:55:15 GMT
Not sure this is the best place for it but came across this video of the alternative option, Why we might be alone. It counters some of the popular assumptions and raises some questions, although he does only consider the possibility of abiogenesis. I.e. doesn't consider how common Earth type planets are - which currently does seem to be rare - or how long an 'intelligent' life form might last among others. Any of those could significantly reduce the possibility of finding intelligence life even if the abiogenesis probability is large enough to allow multiple locations for life in this galaxy say. |
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