This week, my blog post is going to feature summaries of three journal articles having to do with Venus, second planet from the Sun. Only there's a catch: two of the summaries are of peer-reviewed journal articles, while one is completely fictitious. Can you guess which one is the imposter?
This study re-analyzes Venera 13 images of the surface of Venus, identifying several objects with sizes ranging from a decimeter to a half-meter. Interestingly, objects that are visible in one Venera image are not necessarily visible in another Venera image of the same location. The morphology of these and other objects is of great interest, with a similar appearance to terrestrial wood fungus and mushrooms, representing hypothetical Venusian flora. The article then speculates on the (hypothetically) exciting chain of events that led another object, termed "the scorpion," to be covered by soil laterally ejected from the impact of the Venera landing, with "the scorpion" eventually freeing itself from the soil.
The authors in this study report results from chemical modeling on the stability of phosphorous species in a hypothetical early Venus atmosphere. The study addresses and considers the effects of a hypothetical fainter early Sun on the photochemical mechanisms and kinetic reactions of phosphine in the early Venus atmosphere, modeling the thermodynamics of atmospheric and surface phosphorous species. As liquid water is modeled to be a constituent of the Venus surface in the study, the authors note that reduced phosphorous species (phosphite) can be formed from phosphate in hydrothermal systems on the Earth. This process could plausibly occur on an early Venus, given the assumption of a surface liquid water ocean.
The authors of this study provide an overview of Venus' spectral signatures, and how microorganisms could potentially survive in Venus' lower clouds. They go on to note the possibility of an iron and sulfur-centered metabolism in the clouds, how organism would hypothetically be transported from the surface to the lower atmosphere, and provide examples of biosignatures that may be used to identify such microorganisms in Venus atmosphere. Lastly, the authors note that there is enough mass in the lower atmosphere to harbor microorganisms, solutes, and solvents, adding recommendations for future investigations of Venus' biosignatures.