Dr. Steven Raheb is an established presence in the Connecticut community who practiced as an OB/GYN physician for many years. In his current position with Quinebaug Valley Community College, Dr. Steven Raheb focuses on teaching biology as an adjunct professor.
A recent Time article brought focus to signs of potential life found on Venus, indicating that “biology” as we understand it may occur across the universe. Venus is approximately the size of Earth, but has a completely different environment. Surface temperatures approach 900 degrees Fahrenheit and the atmosphere consists of 96 percent CO2. Ground-level pressure exceeds that on Earth by 90 times, which is equivalent to being under 3,000 feet of water.
Life would seem unlikely in such an environment, except that large quantities of the toxic gas phosphine were discovered on Venus by observation with telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. This gas is known on Earth as a byproduct of microorganisms that exist in environments that are anaerobic, or deficient in free oxygen. While the gas could be produced through lightning interactions or volcanic eruptions, the concentrations seem far higher than one would expect from non-biological, periodic processes.
The bottom line is that biology may be regularly replenishing those gasses on Venus. The planet once had a watery surface, and the lack of plate tectonics meant that CO2 could not return to the ground and a runaway greenhouse effect took place. One possibility is that, in the temperate climate hundreds of millions of years before the water was lost, microbial life may have evolved and migrated to elevations 31 miles above the planet’s surface, where pressure is similar to that of Earth and temperatures are in the 86 degree Fahrenheit range.
The same questions of biology posed by Venus exist with other bodies in the Solar System, such as the dwarf planet Pluto, which is thought to have a salty, liquid ocean under its surface.
A recent Time article brought focus to signs of potential life found on Venus, indicating that “biology” as we understand it may occur across the universe. Venus is approximately the size of Earth, but has a completely different environment. Surface temperatures approach 900 degrees Fahrenheit and the atmosphere consists of 96 percent CO2. Ground-level pressure exceeds that on Earth by 90 times, which is equivalent to being under 3,000 feet of water.
Life would seem unlikely in such an environment, except that large quantities of the toxic gas phosphine were discovered on Venus by observation with telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. This gas is known on Earth as a byproduct of microorganisms that exist in environments that are anaerobic, or deficient in free oxygen. While the gas could be produced through lightning interactions or volcanic eruptions, the concentrations seem far higher than one would expect from non-biological, periodic processes.
The bottom line is that biology may be regularly replenishing those gasses on Venus. The planet once had a watery surface, and the lack of plate tectonics meant that CO2 could not return to the ground and a runaway greenhouse effect took place. One possibility is that, in the temperate climate hundreds of millions of years before the water was lost, microbial life may have evolved and migrated to elevations 31 miles above the planet’s surface, where pressure is similar to that of Earth and temperatures are in the 86 degree Fahrenheit range.
The same questions of biology posed by Venus exist with other bodies in the Solar System, such as the dwarf planet Pluto, which is thought to have a salty, liquid ocean under its surface.
