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The clouds of Venus are too dry to support life as we know it

The clouds of Venus are too dry to support life as we know it

28 June 2021

An analysis of Venus's toxic clouds found that the amount of water there is more than 100 times too low for life as we know it to survive, putting a damper on recent signs that organisms could potentially exist there


venus

Venus might not have signs of life after all, say astronomers

20 October 2020

Measurements of phosphine in Venus’s clouds have sparked speculation that it could have come from life, but a new analysis of infrared measurements from 2015 has failed to find the gas


Pioneer Venus Multiprobe

NASA may have found signs of life on Venus in 1978 without realising

2 October 2020

After the observation of phosphine gas on Venus, which may be a sign of life there, a new search through old data has found hints of the gas and more


Life on Venus? Everything you need to know about the big discovery

Life on Venus? Everything you need to know about the big discovery

14 September 2020

Space and physics reporter Leah Crane answers New Scientist readers’ questions on the recent finding of potential signs of life in Venus’s atmosphere


Imagined Mars settlement

Should SpaceX be allowed to contaminate Mars with Earth microbes?

11 December 2019

The rise of the private space industry may mean allowing Earth microbes to escape to other worlds, but is it worth the risk?


Curiosity rovr

Curiosity is entering what may be the best area to find life on Mars

1 April 2019

Clay on the Martian surface may be able to sustain and nourish microbes, and the Curiosity rover has just rolled into an area on Mars that’s chock full of it


surface of Mars

The ethics issue: Should we colonise other planets?

5 July 2017

As ever more potentially habitable exoplanets are discovered, it's time we asked ourselves: do we have the right to take over another world?


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