European Spacecraft Flying Past Venus Will Now Look for Signs of Life (forbes.com) 15
"Earlier this week, scientists announced the discovery of phosphine on Venus, a potential signature of life. Now, in an amazing coincidence, a European and Japanese spacecraft is about to fly past the planet — and could confirm the discovery," writes Forbes. A Slashdot reader shares their report:
BepiColombo, launched in 2018, is on its way to enter orbit around Mercury, the innermost planet of the Solar System. But to achieve that it plans to use two flybys of Venus to slow itself down, one on October 15, 2020, and another on August 10, 2021. The teams running the spacecraft already had plans to observe Venus during the flyby. But now, based on this detection of phosphine from telescopes on Earth, they are now planning to use both of these flybys to look for phosphine using an instrument on the spacecraft...
As this first flyby is only weeks away, however, the observation campaign of the spacecraft is already set in stone, making the chance of a discovery slim. More promising is the second flyby next year, which will not only give the team more time to prepare, but also approach just 550 kilometers from Venus...
If a detection can be made, it would provide independent verification of the presence of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. And for future missions planning to visit the planet, which alongside Rocket Lab's mission includes potential spacecraft from NASA, India, Russia, and Europe, that could be vital information.
As this first flyby is only weeks away, however, the observation campaign of the spacecraft is already set in stone, making the chance of a discovery slim. More promising is the second flyby next year, which will not only give the team more time to prepare, but also approach just 550 kilometers from Venus...
If a detection can be made, it would provide independent verification of the presence of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. And for future missions planning to visit the planet, which alongside Rocket Lab's mission includes potential spacecraft from NASA, India, Russia, and Europe, that could be vital information.
Set in stone? (Score:2)
Re:Set in stone? (Score:4, Funny)
I hear they're hot.
Re: (Score:2)
But vaporous! At least their upper part is.
But they are also bottom-pressurized.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They're hot!
Russia ... (Score:2)
Flying past Venus (Score:3)
At least it's not circling around Uranus.
Would the Venusians want to be found by us? (Score:2)
If they looked at our 2020 I think they would go quiet and crawl into their caves. With the timing of RGB's death it's for certain all the control rods for 2020 have been removed.
Life that was or Life that is (Score:2)
Venus with its contra rotation and clear signs of really MAJOR impact, any signs of life could be of a life that was rather than a life that is. Probably Venus in a different orbit was teeming with life, no different to earth and then one fateful day and it was all over, wiped out. The question is, those molecules made distinct by life, how many would survive the impact, well exist post impact, not survive, nothing survives (maybe just maybe some extremophiles, from the bottom of Venuses seas to the upper r
Re: Life that was or Life that is (Score:2)
Is this a poem? Oh wait, nevermind, it's a barely coherent Slashdot comment. Duh.
Re: (Score:3)
The detected phosphine would have been destroyed long ago if it were not being continually replenished. If it was created by life then that life is still there.
Already (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a matter of emphasis. Only so many measurements can be taken during a flyby, and they have to set the instruments up beforehand to look for the data they're interested in. Generally no one is interested in phosphine because it's created naturally at low levels so no one looks for it or its precursor chemicals or its breakdown byproducts. It's too late to make changes in the experimental setup before this flyby happens, but Venus is going to be getting a lot more examination before the next flyby so
help on essay (Score:1)