Venus' Atmosphere May Contain Life

Num7

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According to some, forms of primitive life may still exist in the mixture of gases that passes for air on Venus. And astronomers don't stop here – they say that they want a sample mission to retrieve any potential “inhabitant” that may be hiding there.

Over the years, several spacecraft have made their way to the planet, and have analyzed it to some extent. Still, we know a lot less about it than we do about Mars, for example. The Red Planet has been studied non-stop for decades.

Yet, while theories suggest that life may exist on Mars too, it's Venus that could hold the biggest surprise for astrobiologists. But this mystery can easily be solved, scientists say, by simply sending a flying balloon to the planet, to try and trap Venusian life.

Click here to read the full article:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Venus-Atmosphere-May-Contain-Life-190846.shtml
 

ifeelittoo

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would be funny after looking so far away for 'habitable' planets that it is possible that we could have life on both neighbours.
 

Num7

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It'd be mind blowing. We keep looking for signs of habitable planets far far a way in our galaxy. How hard would it be to find life on Venus or Mars? Those 2 planets are closer to us than any other worlds they'll ever find and we keep looking our there for habitable planets.

I agree though, a planet inhabited by life forms isn't necessarily "habitable" by human beings. That being said, let's say with find a planet with signs of life, at 200 light-years from here. What are we gonna do next? Well, we can't send anything there, it's just ridiculously far away just to send some probe and wait a few thousands of years until it reaches it.

I still feel it would be much more scientifically valuable and more convenient to seriously search for life on both Venus and Mars, before trying to locate Earth-like worlds in deep space, hundreds and thousands of light-years from here and just assume some of them could sustain life. We're likely a century of two from deep space travel, so what's the point? We can't even send a manned mission to Mars!
 


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