I guess we can cross “aliens” off our 2020 bingo card because astronomers have potentially discovered signs of life on Venus. YES! Aliens! In 2020! I wish I was surprised!
Honestly, somebody needs to call Tom Delonge because I think he was right, aliens really *do* exist, well, maybe.
At this stage, the potential discovery is yet to be confirmed and will require further telescope observations and maybe even some trips to space, but astronomers are fairly convinced that a living being is the only thing capable of producing phosphine in the atmosphere.
The news is particularly shocking because we’ve never really looked at Venus as a planet that’s capable of sustaining life. It’s hot (like hundreds of degrees, hot) and covered with clouds of sulphuric acid. Basically, it’s a living hell.
Venus is roughly the same size as Earth, but as Earth developed into the flourishing, beautiful planet we’ve worked hard to absolutely destroy (thanks, climate change), Venus turned into a literal hell.
Honestly, the idea of our first signs of alien life coming from the planet that mirrors hell is the *most* 2020 thing I’ve ever heard.
“This is an astonishing and ‘out of the blue’ finding,” planetary scientist and author of the papers Sara Seager said. “It will definitely fuel more research into the possibilities for life in Venus’s atmosphere.”
But don’t go preparing your alien invasion kit just yet because the idea has been questioned by other researchers, who think the weird gas could also just be naturally occurring on the planet. I mean, what do we know? They have sulphuric acid clouds, so who’s to say they don’t just have random pockets of phosphine?
Although there’s still a chance that it’s *not* aliens, the discovery is still pretty exciting because it will be the thing that stops NASA from ignoring the possibility of life on the hell planet.
“Venus has been ignored by NASA for so long. It’s really a shame,” planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson told the NY Times.
Heck, the administrator of NASA himself even took to Twitter to announce that “it’s time to prioritise Venus.”
https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1305598182571810822
It’s unclear exactly how likely this is to actually be the hell aliens I dream of, but it’s definitely a story to watch because, you know, HELL ALIENS!!
Space is equal parts exciting and terrifying, and the concept of aliens just roaming around a planet with sulphuric acid clouds is honestly the least-weird thing we’ve experienced this year. I, for one, welcome the hell aliens.
E.T phone home, bitch.
