According to the recent NASA-funded study published in the Journal Astrobiology, aliens could be inhabitants of our solar system, in particular, they could be living in the clouds of Venus.
NASA supported this study which points out that otherworldly creatures could be the inhabitants of the acid clouds on Venus.
As scientists reported, the intensity of sulfur dioxide in the uppermost atmosphere of Venus might be the place aliens call home.
However, the study also suggests the aliens could be only otherworldly bacteria rather than fully evolved creatures.
Thanks to the space explorations, scientists managed to identify dark zones around the rust-colored body. These zones quite enough matched the light-absorbing features of bacteria on Earth, which led to their conclusion we wrote above.
As experts said, these obscure zones on Venus could be a place where extraterrestrial bacteria may flourish. Moreover, they made a comparison with those bacteria in the lakes on our planet.
Since the clouds of Venus are comprised of sulfuric acid, they reflect around 75% of the sunlight that impacts them. Hence, this fact makes them look like they’re almost completely dark.
Numerous astronomers have called Venus Earth’s Evil twin due to its dangerous conditions. Namely, on its surface, there is rain in the form of acid and the temperature is unimaginable 462 degrees Celsius.
The study regarding the potential alien life on Earth’s evil twin considers some factors. For example how many alien microorganisms can survive if blown around by acute winds in the colder clouds of Venus.
“On Earth, we know that life can thrive in very acidic conditions, can feed on carbon dioxide, and produce sulfuric acid,” says Rakesh Mogul, a professor of biological chemistry at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a co-author on the new paper.
In addition, the researcher says that the cloudy and echoed atmosphere of this planet contains mostly carbon dioxide and water liquid from sulfuric acid.
As a matter of fact, the possibility that Venus might hold alien life has initially been mentioned back in 1967.
Biophysicist Harold Morowitz and astronomer Carl Sagan theorized that Venus’ clouds may sustain extraterrestrial life.
“Venus shows some episodic dark, sulfuric rich patches, with contrasts up to 30–40 percent in the ultraviolet and muted in longer wavelengths. These patches persist for days, changing their shape and contrasts continuously and appear to be scale dependent,” says Limaye.