There Could Be Life On Planet Venus..................................

A team of astronomers suggested today that there could be life on Planet Venus.

The team said they have spotted the chemical fingerprint of phosphine, which scientists have suggested may be tied to life, in the clouds of the second rock from the sun.

The finding is no guarantee that life exists on Venus, but researchers say it’s a tantalizing find that emphasizes the need for more missions to the hot, gassy planet next door.

The scientists behind the new research wanted to look for phosphine.

Researchers have recently wondered whether the chemical could be a good bio-signature, a compound astronomers target in looking for life. It should break down quickly in atmospheres that are rich in oxygen, like those of Earth and Venus, and on Earth, when it isn’t being made by human industrial processes, it seems to be found near certain kinds of microbes.

Jane Greaves, an astronomer at the University of Cardiff in the U.K. and lead author of the new research, realized that she could use a telescope she knew well to check for it in the atmosphere of Venus, she told Space.com.

“Looking for it in Venus might be really peculiar, but it’s not hard to do and it wouldn’t take that many hours of telescope time,” Greaves said she thought at the time. “Why not give it a go?” So on five separate mornings in June 2017, the astronomers used the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii to stare at Venus.

And then the observations sat around on a computer for a year and a half, Greaves said, without her managing to find time to study them.

“I thought, well, just before we throw this away, I’ll have a final go at [analyzing the data],” she said. “There was this line and it just wouldn’t go away, and it seemed like it wasn’t imaginary anymore. I was just completely stunned.”