Looking for life in the clouds of Venus
6/3/202627 min
A group of researchers and private investors are planning a series of privately funded missions to Venus, hoping to find signs of life. That may seem like a startling possibility. Although Venus is a close neighbor to Earth, it has a smothering atmosphere of carbon dioxide that has allowed the planet’s surface to heat to temperatures that would melt lead. There’s crushing pressure. And to top it off, there are clouds of sulfuric acid.
Astrophysicist and planetary scientist Sara Seager joins Host Ira Flatow to explain why she thinks life on Venus might be possible, high up in the clouds. Seager has conducted lab experiments that indicate various biomolecules could survive there, despite the toxic conditions. She’s leading a series of proposed private missions to the planet, to study the atmosphere, conduct habitability studies, and even bring back a sample of Venusian cloud material.
Guest:
Dr. Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and a professor of physics, planetary science, and aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsIra Flatow· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hi, Ira here, and you're listening to Science Friday. Dr. Sara Seager has made a career out of looking for signs of life in outer space, searching for exoplanets thousands of light years away. But now Dr. Seager has come home, sort of. She has turned her attention to our neighbor, the planet Venus. At first, it would seem like an unlikely place to look for life. Its surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead. It has a smothering carbon dioxide atmosphere, all topped off with sulfuric acid clouds. But Dr. Seager thinks it might be possible for some form of life to survive there, not on the planet's surface, but up in those clouds. Dr. Sara Seager is an astrophysicist, planetary scientist at MIT, and part of a team leading a proposed series of missions to Venus to sample those clouds for evidence of life. Welcome back to Science Friday.
Sara Seager· Guest0:59
Thanks, Ira.
Ira Flatow· Host1:01
You know, when I list the conditions on Venus, life doesn't seem likely. Uh, the idea that life might exist in the clouds there, where does that come from and why are you hopeful about that?
Sara Seager· Guest1:12
Well, first, I-- the way you listed what it's like in the Venus atmosphere, it doesn't sound too friendly to me either. [chuckles] [laughs] So yes. Well, when we think about what life requires, if we want to truly boil down to the fundamentals, there's just a few things. One is temperature,