AstronomyNew study suggests some forms of life could exist...

New study suggests some forms of life could exist in Venus’s sulfuric acid clouds

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Venus. Credit score: Pixabay/CC0 Public Area

A group of chemists and planetary scientists from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Nanoplanet Consulting and MIT has discovered proof {that a} type of life that makes use of sulfuric acid as a liquid medium may exist in among the clouds protecting Venus. The group has printed their paper on the arXiv preprint server.

Prior analysis has steered that if there may be any type of life kind dwelling on Venus, it will seemingly not be on the floor (it’s far too sizzling) however within the clouds, the place temperatures are nearer to these discovered on Earth. However prior analysis has additionally proven that the clouds protecting Venus will not be made up of water; as a substitute, they’re constituted largely of sulfuric acid.

Sulfuric acid is a mineral acid made up of sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen—on Earth, it’s odorless, colorless and corrosive. However, the researchers word, there is no such thing as a proof that every one life forms should have the identical type of liquid medium to perform. On this new effort, they questioned if sulfuric acid may function a liquid medium for some type of life. To that finish, they seemed into the potential for amino acids remaining steady when immersed in sulfuric acid at temperatures discovered within the clouds protecting Venus.

They examined 20 biogenic amino acids by suspending small samples in jars of sulfuric acid for 4 weeks at temperatures noticed in cloud layers on Venus located 48 to 64 kilometers above the floor. They discovered that 19 of the amino acids remained both unreactive or had been chemically modified in ways in which would permit life to exist.

The researchers recommend that, ought to amino acids make their solution to the clouds protecting Venus (reminiscent of by way of a meteor), they might conceivably work together with different organic material additionally delivered by a meteor to start out some type of dwelling materials, one with a sulfuric acid medium. Amino acids, they word, are the building blocks from which proteins are made, which is a requisite for all times on Earth. They additional recommend that their findings additionally broaden the vary of doable life-sustaining planets in different elements of the universe.

Extra info:
Maxwell D. Seager et al, Stability of 20 Biogenic Amino Acids in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Habitability of Venus’ Clouds, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2401.01441

Journal info:
arXiv


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New research suggests some types of life may exist in Venus’s sulfuric acid clouds (2024, January 9)
retrieved 10 January 2024
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