Life on Venus

Of all the planets in the solar system, Venus used to be regarded traditionally as the one most likely to harbour extraterrestrial life. Its reflective thick clouds were once thought possibly to conceal an otherworldly paradise; however since the landing of the Venera 7 space probe in 1970 we've found out that the surface of Venus is one of the most inhospitable places in the universe. The temperature is over 400 degrees C, hot enough to melt lead; the only liquid in cycle is sulphuric acid and the pressure is the equivalent of being three thousand feet underwater. No kind of life we could conceive of could ever evolve there. This is because Venus is much closer to the sun than the earth and its clouds trap the solar heat inside like insulation. Nevertheless, in the upper layers of the atmosphere, the temperature averages 38 degrees C and the pressure is similar to the earth at sea level. In fact some people have suggested this would be the easiest place to colonize. Humans could live in huge balloons floating at just the right altitude, Venus' internal Goldilocks zone. It would be a pleasantly warm place, like an average day in earth's hot countries, with no need to survive in a pressurized habitat. There would probably be a very low level of radiation. However, the atmosphere up there is 95% carbon dioxide, still completely toxic; so we would need to have an indoor environment with breathable air to live in. Nevertheless, if it sprang a leak we would not have to worry about explosive decompression and everybody suddenly dying, like you would on Mars. Repairing it would be a non-urgent job, like fixing a leaking roof on earth. We could go outside without a space suit on, but would need an air supply. We would also need to use anti-corrosion materials to protect our homes from the acid rain. We would have to carry a protective suit or umbrella of that material on every excursion. We would also have to be very careful that our habitat, that is essentially a large aircraft, would maintain its altitude because if it flew too low its inhabitants would burn up, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCYyog_CD_c. Despite these hazards, Venus could prove far easier to live on than Mars or any other planet we know of. The obvious next question following on from that is: could that environment be home to indigenous life forms, even life as we know it, Jim. Maybe! Astronomers have just detected signs of a gas within the upper clouds of Venus called phosphine. Its chemical formula is PH3; One phosphorus and three hydrogen atoms in compound. This gas is one naturally produced by life forms on earth, such as the gut microbes of some animals like penguins and low oxygen environments like swamps. A new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy examines the various causes for the presence of this gas and can propose nothing except life. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4.

This is not a final answer. It may turn out to be a mistake or that an abiotic source is eventually found for the phosphine gas. There is also the crucial question of how any life that produced it could survive in a world full of sulphuric acid, which breaks down the cells of most earth organisms. However, if further investigation continues to support life on Venus then this could be as significant as the Mars meteorite. It is not just about the presence of life itself, but how its proximity to earth affects the statistical status of life in the universe in general. There is a wildly-held belief in the scientific community that earth is the only living planet in the universe, see background links for details; and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqEmYU8Y_rI. According to that theory, we wrongly assume that the universe is full of life because we happen to be lucky enough to be born on the one planet that can harbour it. We should not assume that, in the same way that a person who happens to win the National Lottery does not assume every other punter also wins the jackpot. And I know it's only microbes anyway; not exactly something we can take to our leader. However two separate points of life occurrence changes the chance dynamic considerably. It places the burden of proof on the dead universe theorists to explain that... No doubt some will still play the tried and tested coincidence card. Venus is, on average, the closest planet to the earth. If both happen to have life on them, it speaks volumes about the probability of life on yet more planets. Of course one might argue that the life-producing chemicals were transferred between the earth and Venus by mechanical means soon after it emerged on earth. This is what skeptics of the Mars meteorite claim; but it has never been proved that such mechanical transfer is possible. It also would not explain the obvious difference Venusian life would have to have to have evolved successfully on that planet. This revelation will effect the SETI movement enormously, see background links below. But what about UFOlogy? If life is a common and regular emergent property of the universe, and that it can evolve to very high levels of complexity and sophistication, as it has on earth; then presumably it has also done so on other planets very often. We should not therefore be surprised if it has developed ways of navigating the depths of space, as we have, and paying us a visit. I suspect this news about Venus will make people sit up and take another look at the UFO phenomenon.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2018/07/apparently-we-are-alone.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/02/seti-and-ufos.html.
And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2018/06/interstellar-asteroid-is-speeding-up.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/01/skeptics-2018.html.