Did We Just Detect Life on Venus?

The announcement of the detection of a possible biomarker in the atmosphere of Venus has shook up the field of astrobiology and grabbed headlines across the world. Today, we explore why Venus could plausibly host life, how this detection was made, and whether it really means that we've finally found extraterrestrial life. Written and presented by Prof Kipping, featuring guest Dr Caleb Scharf.

Thank-you to Kevin Clark, Tom Widdowson, Denny Smith, Stephanie Hackley, Mark Sloan, Laura Sanborn, Kolos Kantor, Patrick Herman, Abel Aganbegyan, Claudio Bottaccini, Daniel Brunk, Douglas Daughaday, Scott Fincher, James Kindred, Andrew Jones, Jason Allen, Steven Baldwin, Jason Black, Stuart Brownlee, Shivam Chaturvedi, David Denholm, Tim Dorais, Glen Downton, Eneko Urrestarazu, Gordon Fulton, Sean Griffiths, Peter Halloran, John Jurcevic, Niklas Kildal, Jack Kobernick, Wes Kobernick, Valeri Kremer, Marc Lijoi, Sheri Loftin, Branden Loizides, Anatoliy Maslyanchuk, Blair Matson, Ocean Mcintyre, Laini Mitchell, Jeffrey Needle, André Pelletier, Juan Rivillas, Bret Robinson, Zenith Star, Lauren Steely, Ernest Stefan-Matyus, Mark Steven, Elena West, Barrett York, Tristan Zajonc, Preetumsingh Gowd, Shaun Kelsey, Chuck Wolfred, David Vennel, Emre Dessoi, Fahid Naeem, Francisco Rebolledo, Hauke Laging, James Falls, Jon Adams, Michael Gremillion, Pierce Rutherford, Trev Kline, Tristan Leger, Lasse Skov & Takashi Hanai.

::Paper announcing the detection::

::Other references used::
► Sousa-Silva. C. et al. (2019), "Phosphine as a Biosignature Gas in Exoplanet Atmosphere",

::Movies/TV scenes used::
► Roving Mars (2006) Buena Vista Pictures
► Exploring Venus (2019) Magellan TV
► Star Trek (1966) Paramount Pictures

::Other video footage used::
► Bill Clinton footage form the Presidential Library & White House Television

::Music::

::Playlists For Channel::

::Follow us::
THANKS FOR WATCHING!!

#VenusLife #Venusians #CoolWorlds

[dr.zoidberg]

I knew the 2020 season finale was gonna be aliens.

[Gladiamdammit]

Some life forms on earth actually thrive in acid. They're called, 'hippies.'

[octave]

“What an exciting time to be alive”, 🤔 I think that’s the first time I’ve heard someone say that this year.

[indyola]

Currently, the population of Mars is 100% robots.

[alexandergrothendieck]

"Why not just go to Venus and scoop up a bit of the cloud and look at it"
Imagine saying that 1000 or 2000 years ago. We have truly come so far.

[lyledal]

As someone on Twitter said: It's either life or new chemistry. Either way, it is exciting!

[Asuna_]

*Oil exists on Venus*
America: We have come to rescue you, please do not resist

[donalddeorio]

I've heard this theory before, life seems to be tenacious and has filled every niche on earth no matter how hostile. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true. I think that we will find life on many moons in the solar system.

[JS]

A lot of my old friends would claim that they thrived on acid too...

[sethlastname]

The thing i never understood about people’s views on alien life is why they are so quick to assume no life can survive on planets without an earth-like atmosphere and temps with water and stuff? Isnt evolution a thing? Whos to say life on other planets didnt adapt to survive scorching heat, high pressure and no oxygen?

[Hodoss]

Life on Venus?! The Hell Planet?!
Doomguy: loads shotgun with malicious intent...

[artemis_smith]

Born too late to explore the Earth, born too early to explore the universe, but born at just the right time to see where we've been and where we're going.

Hopefully we get something into Venus's atmosphere soon to study and sample things and get a good grasp on the source of this observation.

[leonausten]

I still can’t believe it. I am just 22 and I enjoyed the first picture of a black Hole, the discovery of the Higgs Boson, LIGO and the most important bio signature ever discovered.

[vibovitold]

researchers:
"That doesn’t mean it is life. It just means that some exotic process is producing phosphine, and our understanding of Venus needs work" (Sousa-Silva)
"Either this is life, or it’s some sort of physical or chemical process that we do not expect to happen on rocky planets" (Pętkowski)

media and YT commenters:
"Signs of Alien Life detected on Venus!"
"Where are these Microbes from?"

[existentialismtyrant]

Meanwhile we are still looking for intelligent life on this planet

[windowboy]

“Life on Venus” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it does it Bowie

[z-beeblebrox]

12:00 *"I'm cautiously super excited about it"* is such a scientist thing to say lol

[colinsmith]

This reminds me of the finding of complex organic compounds in the vapor being expelled from Europa. The researchers explained it as "We're not saying it's life, but we're saying that the explanation of life suddenly went from option #362 to option #4".

[RyanGalSki]

“Do you get to the cloud district very often? Oh, what am I saying, of course you don’t.”

[mattstorm]

NASA actually had a concept for going to Venus called the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept or HAVOC. You can just change Concept to Craft if you do it. The idea was a blimp that floats in the clouds of Venus where a pair of scientist can do experiments and make observation before climbing into a rocket in the back, dropping down and then launching back into orbit. Eventually this would lead to an idea of a cloud city. Isaac Arthur has an episode about that too Colonizing Venus. Personal, I hope this discover gets more people interested in Venus and maybe even get people interested in going to Venus.