HOT ON THE HEELS of two new space missions heading to Venus and a sensational — but disputed — paper suggesting the life-oriented chemical phosphine is present in the atmosphere, Venus is on everyone’s minds.
Some scientists are starting to turn their gaze toward the hellishly hot planet as a potential place to look for life in the Solar System — one more likely to bear fruit than Mars.
But there’s one small snag: Opportunities to look for alien life directly on other worlds are rare, so scientists will first try to rule candidates out. Typically, they will spend years studying various factors that affect whether or not an environment might be able to host life in the lab, or in a simulation. And doing just that, a study fresh off the press holds bad news for would-be Venusians — but also good news for hopeful Jovians.
WHAT’S NEW — In a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, a team of researchers takes a look at how accessible water is in the clouds of a planet, specifically Jupiter, Venus, and Mars. This could be a key indicator for whether life on another planet is possible — but unfortunately for Team Venus, the news is not good.
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