The Search for Life on Venus: Phosphine and Morning Star Missions

The Phosphine Discovery on Venus

• 💡 Phosphine was identified as a potential sign of life on Venus by Professor Jane Greaves and independently by Sara Seager's team.
• 🎯 This gas is considered anomalous because it doesn't naturally occur from volcanic activity, lightning, or meteor delivery on Venus.
• ⚠️ The initial discovery of phosphine on Venus was highly controversial due to noisy data and difficulties in signal recovery by other teams.
• 🔍 Questions arose regarding whether the signal was real and if it was correctly attributed to phosphine, with some suggesting sulfur dioxide.

Venus's Habitable Zone and Chemistry

• 🌡️ While Venus's surface is extremely hot (700 Kelvin), 50 kilometers above the surface, the temperature and pressure are similar to Earth's room conditions.
• ☁️ The clouds of Venus are composed of concentrated sulfuric acid, which poses a challenge for traditional life forms.
• 🧪 Researchers are exploring a new paradigm where sulfuric acid could potentially act as a solvent for life, challenging previous assumptions.

Experimental Evidence for Life in Sulfuric Acid

• 🔬 Experiments have shown that 20 biogenic amino acids (with one exception) remain stable, though chemically modified, in concentrated sulfuric acid.
• 🧬 Parts of DNA (ACGT) have also been found to be stable in sulfuric acid, suggesting potential for complex organic chemistry.
• 🌱 The team demonstrated that simple organic compounds can grow into rich organic chemistry when placed in sulfuric acid, a process known to the oil industry.
• 🦠 Lipids (fats with a polar head) form small, spherical membranes in concentrated sulfuric acid, similar to how they form cell membranes in water.

Morning Star Missions to Venus

• 🚀 The team is leading the Morning Star missions to Venus, rebranded from "Venus Lifefinder" due to pushback from the scientific community and donors.
• 🛰️ The first mission, a Rocket Lab mission, involves a small probe with a heat shield designed to descend through the Venus atmosphere.
• 📡 This probe will use a laser to measure back-scattered polarized radiation and fluorescence to detect organic molecules, not just pure sulfuric acid.
• 🎈 A planned second mission aims to send a balloon into Venus's atmosphere to search for more complex molecules that could strongly indicate life.