New Delhi, June 29
Jupiter's clouds have water conditions that would allow earth-like life to exist, but this isn't possible in Venus' clouds, according to the groundbreaking finding of research led by Queen's University Belfast scientists.
For some decades, space exploration missions have looked for evidence of life beyond earth where we know that large bodies of water, such as lakes or oceans, exist or have previously existed.
However, the new research shows that it isn't the quantity of water that matters for making life viable, but the effective concentration of water molecules — known as 'water activity'.
The new study also found that research published by an independent team of scientists last year, claiming that the phosphine gas in Venus' atmosphere indicates possible life in the sulphuric acid clouds of Venus, is not plausible.
Through this innovative research project, Dr John E. Hallsworth from the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's and his team of international collaborators devised a method to determine the water activity of atmospheres of a planet.
Using their approach to study the sulphuric acid clouds of Venus, the researchers found that the water activity was more than a hundred times below the lower limit at which life can exist on earth.
The research also shows that Jupiter's clouds have a high enough concentration of water, as well as the correct temperature, for life to exist there. The study has been published in Nature Astronomy.
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