Is there life on Venus? Not so fast, scientists caution

The amount of water within the clouds of Venus and most planets in the solar system is far too low to sustain life as we know it, suggests a new study published Monday.

This finding further indicates that most — but not all — cloudy planetary environments are not conducive to life.

“The water in the clouds of Venus is just not up to the levels required to support life,” said study co-author Christopher McKay, a NASA scientist.

Study lead author John E. Hallsworth of Queen’s University Belfast, said research “shows that the sulfuric acid clouds in Venus have too little water for active life to exist, based on what we know of life on Earth.”

But the new 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.

“We have also found that the conditions of water and temperature within Jupiter’s clouds could allow microbialtype life to subsist, assuming that other requirements such as nutrients are present,” Hallsworth said in a statement.

“Now I’m not suggesting there’s life on Jupiter, and I’m not even suggesting life could be there because it would need the nutrients to be there and we can’t be sure of that,” Hallsworth said at a news conference. “But still it’s a profound and exciting finding and totally unexpected.”

Monday’s report contradicts a widely publicized study published last year that said life was possible in the clouds of Venus. September’s surprise announcement by another research team said strange, tiny organisms could be lurking in the thick, sulfuric acid-filled clouds of Venus.

Specifically, the paltry amount of water in Venus’ clouds is more than 100 times too low for life to form, Monday’s study said.

“It’s almost at the bottom of the scale and an unbridgeable distance from what life requires to be active,” Hallsworth said. His team looked at the most dry-tolerant and also the most acid-tolerant microbes on Earth — and they “wouldn’t stand a chance in Venus.”

As for new explorations of Venus, three new spacecraft will be headed there later this decade and early next — two by NASA and one by the European Space Agency.