New Scientist: Venus' Atmosphere Implies Life

WolfWithoutAClause writes "This New Scientist article says that the atmosphere of Venus has features that may only be explaineable by the existence of life in its upper atmosphere. In particular it has cartain chemicals which are extremely difficult to make inorganically. At the altitude where life is suspected the temperature is about 70C and about 1 atmosphere. There are gases there which are not naturally found together. The article suggests something is actively producing them, quite possibly, life."

Life on Venus?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta be female. After all, Men are from Mars, etc.

Is it worth getting excited about?

[Zakabog]

Shopkeeper: "... I must warn you they've found life on venus."

Homer: "That's bad."

Shopkeeper: "But it was only some bugs!"

Homer: "That's good!"

Shopkeeper: "The news was reported on New Scientist."

Homer: "That's bad."

Shopkeeper: "But they don't require you to register!"

Homer: "That's good!"

Shopkeeper: "They log your IP address and keep logs of all the pages you go to."

[Silence; Homer looks puzzled]

Shopkeeper: "That's bad."

Homer: "Can I go now?"

Yo ho let's go

[spankfish]

Let's terraform the bastards before they evolve into ten foot tall insection beasts with razor sharp teeth, glistening with demonic slobber.

Terraform Venus Now!

Re: Now that's sci-fi appeal!

[Black Parrot]

> But this? Huge swarms that discolor the atmosphere under ultraviolet light? If true, I'd bet that these images become more popular than Cindy Margolis.

Only among them what get their Viagra and LSD mixed up.

Sounds like...

[jukal]

finnish sauna.

At the altitude where life is suspected the temperature is about 70C and about 1 atmosphere. There are gases there which are not naturally found together. The article suggests something is actively producing them, quite possibly, life.

Life on Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone knows that the Good Lord made life and He made it here on Earth only, your Bible tells you that!. You blasphemers are wasting your time on SETI and looking at other planets. Just like the dinosaurs and radio-carbon dating, it's just the devil playing tricks on your blasphemous souls. I know for sure there's no life but here where He intended and saw that it was Good, not on some hell-hole like Venus, or a frigid wasteland like Mars. You people, sheesh, you only need look around you to see you're wasting your time, and you ain't going to Heaven with me.

oh great.

[sawilson]

New York Times August 10th, 2010

KILLER VENUS MICROBE BROUGHT BACK BY SWEDEN
"EATS EVERYTHING"

You must have an account to read full text of
story. :)

Re:TELL YOUR LORD THAT I GAVE HIM GONORRHEA

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy, you are going top burn in the lake of fire with all them other sodomites. I'll pray for your soul, so's maybe you'll let Jesus into your heart one day and be saved. But hurry, there ain't a lot a time left. You gotta let Him into your heart while you're still alive, before the End. The world will end at 14:35 hours, PDT August 14th 2003. Don't waste your time.

Re:I may not know too much, but..

[SlashDotIDOne]

Hmph. Well don't I feel right well stupid. Thanks for the info though, that's pretty insane and interesting. Hmmm, perhaps we could change a few entries in holy scripture, make venus the new holyland, and send all the extremists and fundamentalists THERE?

Re:Contamination?

[Wire Tap]

if the veneran atmosphere is ideal for some atmospheric bacteria

How about Venusian .

Veneran sould like some type of sexually transmitted disease - although it seems like that's what you were aiming for with your last comment.

Re:Humm...

[adrianhensler]

Yes. We put it there.

Here is the scenario as I see it.

1. Earth sends 'probes' (hee hee - he said 'probes') to Venus.
2. Earth accidentally 'seeds' Venus with our 'probes'.
3. New Scientist reports infected atmosphere on Venus. Possible bugs.
4. Earth sends more 'probes' to Venus to bring back sample.
5. Accidental release of sample into Earth's atmosphere......
6. ?
7. Profit.
8. Earth decimated by 'venereal'' bugs, or VD.

There you have it. We are the origin of our destruction.

Poll

[Anonymous Coward]

Strange gases on Venus caused by..?

1) Complex atmospheric-solar interactions
2) Mysterious unknown life-forms
3) Cowboyneal

We have Found Lando Calrissian's Hideout

[egommer]

We may have found Lando's Cloud City. We must inform the Emperor. The Imeprial have already been dispatched. The rebel resistance will be crushed.

Regards,

D.V.

Re:Life?

[matrix29]

There are more than a few explanations for that, I hate New Scientist, they jump to conclusions too often in an effort to drum up interest in their articles.

Or just to play head games with people for laughs. Eggs are good for you today and now they're bad for you again and now they're good for you again. Confusing isn't it?

And of course The ONION's take on this whimsy science... From FussyMonkey.COM (a wonderful archive of "The ONION RADIO NEWS")
http://www.fussymonkey.com/orn/ [fussymonkey.com]

Snickering [fussymonkey.com]
Researchers Say Dog Urine Lowers The Risk Of Heart Disease

Beautiful logic!

[gloohufr]

Highlight of the report:

This gas is so difficult to produce inorganically that it is sometimes considered an unambiguous indicator of biological activity.

But sometimes *not* an unambiguous indicator? Could that make it...let's see... *always* an *ambiguous* indicator?

**keep your eyes on my buh buh-buh-buh bump**

Re:Life on Venus?

[Anonymous Coward]

I must disagree, It has to be men - did you not read the part about ' actively producing ' gases?

Re:Makes me think of that Bananarama song...

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought they had problems due to the heat. On 2 mission the lens cap melted

The lens cap melted?

For me, this phrase immediately summoned the image of forty russian scientists all huddle around a monitor, eagerly anticipating the first look of Venus's landscape, when one says "It's black! What in Lenin's name is going on?"

And then one of them gets a horrified look on his face, smacks his forehead, and says "ACK! I forgot to take the lens cap off before we launched it!"

Venus' Atmosphere Implies 4.7GHz Pentiums

[vaxer]

Gee, this sounds familiar [slashdot.org].

Temperature of 70C... check.
Earth-normal air pressure... check.

My God! Venus' atmosphere is just like the inside of a tricked-out 4.7GHz tower with neon and Nixie tubes.

NASA can save their money looking for life in an atmosphere like that. I've been to LAN parties -- you're not going to find a life anywhere near a box like that.