Venus could have bacterial life in its clouds

[Brian G Turner]

It's been suggested that it could be quite feasible for bacteria to survive high in the atmosphere of Venus - and that might explain the strange Ultra Violet patterns astronomers see there: Life in hell: Could Venus have a bacterial infection?

 

[Venusian Broon]

This is a little unrelated but I remember some suggesting in the 1970's (or thereabouts) to seed the Venusian atmosphere with bacteria as a method of starting terraforming it. I forget the details, but our orbit drops of bacteria would be designed to start the process of changing the atmosphere - removing the nasty stuff (Sulphuric acid etc...) and starting to alter conditions to stop the runaway greenhouse effect and therefore change the crushing pressure and temperature on the surface.

No idea how feasible such an idea could be. I've always assumed that it would take a very long time, even if you had the best 'tailored' bacteria. And hence that's why everyone prefers the colder, smaller Mars as a more viable terraform target.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I seem to recall very speculative ideas of complex life in the atmospheres of gas giants such as Jupiter, and Carl Sagan's name being involved...

EDIT: Here we go: Life in our Solar System – Jupiter

 

[BAYLOR]

This is a little unrelated but I remember some suggesting in the 1970's (or thereabouts) to seed the Venusian atmosphere with bacteria as a method of starting terraforming it. I forget the details, but our orbit drops of bacteria would be designed to start the process of changing the atmosphere - removing the nasty stuff (Sulphuric acid etc...) and starting to alter conditions to stop the runaway greenhouse effect and therefore change the crushing pressure and temperature on the surface.

No idea how feasible such an idea could be. I've always assumed that it would take a very long time, even if you had the best 'tailored' bacteria. And hence that's why everyone prefers the colder, smaller Mars as a more viable terraform target.

At 67 million miles from the sun, I don't see how Venus could become viable.

 

[Venusian Broon]

At 67 million miles from the sun, I don't see how Venus could become viable.

Apply some reason Baylor - Earth is really 'on the outer edge' of its habitable zone (do the mathematics). It is only because of the Greenhouse effect that it is warm enough for liquid water to dominate. Otherwise the average temperature of the surface of the globe would be just below freezing.

Venus just requires a much less dominant greenhouse effect and then it would be perfect for liquid water. And being roughly the same size and mass as Earth, we humans would love the gravity.

Mars being so much further away would require a much more serious greenhouse effect (or we live next to radiators!)

However, I don't think either Mars or Venus has a magnetic field, so that's a problem for both with regards to the sun. Also the Venusian day is about 243 Earth days - it's a really slow rotation which might be problematic (tell me about it, I get sooo...bored of Venusian Sunday Afternoons, they seem to drag dozen of Earth days more than they should.)

 

[BAYLOR]

Apply some reason Baylor - Earth is really 'on the outer edge' of its habitable zone (do the mathematics). It is only because of the Greenhouse effect that it is warm enough for liquid water to dominate. Otherwise the average temperature of the surface of the globe would be just below freezing.

Venus just requires a much less dominant greenhouse effect and then it would be perfect for liquid water. And being roughly the same size and mass as Earth, we humans would love the gravity.

Mars being so much further away would require a much more serious greenhouse effect (or we live next to radiators!)

However, I don't think either Mars or Venus has a magnetic field, so that's a problem for both with regards to the sun. Also the Venusian day is about 243 Earth days - it's a really slow rotation which might be problematic (tell me about it, I get sooo...bored of Venusian Sunday Afternoons, they seem to drag dozen of Earth days more than they should.)

I hadn't considered the greenhouse gas issue VB.

The lack of a magnetic field , atmosphere gets stripped was by the solar wind. That's a huge problem .

243 long days, I would hate to imagine what kind of climate that could produce. Venus has another issue that ive seen-mentioned. Unlike Earth it crust is locked up there are no plate tectonic, one facor to that could be its lack of moon . According to the theory , the planet heats up and literally turns itself inside out. The surface sinks in sea of magma, then it cool ad harded and the process repeats every 500 million years ?

 

[Venusian Broon]

I hadn't considered the greenhouse gas issue VB.

The lack of a magnetic field , atmosphere gets stripped was by the solar wind. That's a huge problem .

243 long days, I would hate to imagine what kind of climate that could produce. Venus has another issue that ive seen-mentioned. Unlike Earth it crust is locked up there are no plate tectonic, one facor to that could be its lack of moon . According to the theory , the planet heats up and literally turns itself inside out. The surface sinks in sea of magma, then it cool ad harded and the process repeats every 500 million years ?

Not so much of problem the denser the atmosphere is - I mean Venus today still has a thick atmosphere, whereas Mars is pretty bare. However this is because the current Venusian atmosphere is extremely thick, if it were only 1 atmosphere, I'd agree you'd be losing a fair bit of nice stuff like water and oxygen reasonably quickly. (Maybe in 10,000 years our descendants will be able to kick-start a planetary magnetic field?)

Not sure what a moon would do to help plate tectonics - you need convection in the planets interior - and I don't think a moon really influences that. (Presumably in Venus the convection has stopped, so that the magnetic field, which I think logically must be connected, is no longer produced; but the core is still hot enough for volcanic behaviour?) Maybe if you had a 'black monolith' - after all it converted Jupiter into a star - you could force a convection to start up, giving rise to plate tectonics and a magnetic field

I vaguely remember this 500 million year recovering effect. I wonder though, that if the atmosphere were to drop in temperature 500 deg C and the Greenhouse effect dismantled, so that the heat from the interior of the planet could much more easily escape into space, if this sequence of events would stop.

Anyway we are really in the realms of SF with this!

 

[BAYLOR]

Not so much of problem the denser the atmosphere is - I mean Venus today still has a thick atmosphere, whereas Mars is pretty bare. However this is because the current Venusian atmosphere is extremely thick, if it were only 1 atmosphere, I'd agree you'd be losing a fair bit of nice stuff like water and oxygen reasonably quickly. (Maybe in 10,000 years our descendants will be able to kick-start a planetary magnetic field?)

Not sure what a moon would do to help plate tectonics - you need convection in the planets interior - and I don't think a moon really influences that. (Presumably in Venus the convection has stopped, so that the magnetic field, which I think logically must be connected, is no longer produced; but the core is still hot enough for volcanic behaviour?) Maybe if you had a 'black monolith' - after all it converted Jupiter into a star - you could force a convection to start up, giving rise to plate tectonics and a magnetic field

I vaguely remember this 500 million year recovering effect. I wonder though, that if the atmosphere were to drop in temperature 500 deg C and the Greenhouse effect dismantled, so that the heat from the interior of the planet could much more easily escape into space, if this sequence of events would stop.

Anyway we are really in the realms of SF with this!

Interesting that Venus and Earth and Mars started off much the same way. One wonders what have been had Venus and mars been able to hold on to atmosphere and water. We might have ended up with 3 worlds supporting life. A bit closer Edgar Rice Boroughs cosmology.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Interesting that Venus and Earth and Mars started off much the same way. One wonders what have been had Venus and mars been able to hold on to atmosphere and water. We might have ended up with 3 worlds supporting life. A bit closer Edgar Rice Boroughs cosmology.

Yeah, who knows, maybe 2-3 billion years ago all three planets were lush water worlds with oceans/continents, and almost identical? ERB was just a wee bit off in his geological timing!