NASA scientist says there are signs of extraterrestrial life and cites atmosphere of Venus

Michelle Thaller, NASA scientist and researcher at the Goddard space center in the United States, said on the last day 23 that she believes that the world will confirm, at some point, the existence of extraterrestrial life.

In an interview with the British The Sun, the expert said that the most likely place for extraterrestrial life is the planet Venus. “I really think we will find life on another planet. We see possible hints of life in Venus’ atmosphere. Possibly, [também] under the ice of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn”, declared the scientist.

The planet Venus is the hottest in the solar system and, according to Thaller, this would be the last place she would expect to find life. “I never expected it to be Venus. Venus is now where we observe something on the surface that could be attributed to bacterial activity,” she explained.

In addition, she revealed that, on Mars, chemical substances were collected that, if they had been found on Earth, they would say that it was through life. “But the question is: How much do we understand about Mars and are we being misled by something,” she said.

“We only need to be that 1% sure to say we found [vida]. But we don’t have that yet,” said the NASA researcher.

Located 107 million kilometers from the Sun, Venus is considered Earth’s twin planet in size and structure, but it couldn’t be more different when it comes to climatic conditions. With temperatures capable of melting lead, scientists believe it is impossible for humans to live on the planet.

It is worth remembering that this is not the first time that scientists have found evidence of life on Venus. In 2020, a study carried out by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), University of Cambridge and Imperial College London and published by the scientific journal Nature, indicated the presence of phosphine gas on the second planet of the solar system.

However, the possible existence of the gas did not necessarily confirm the existence of life on the planet. Two hypotheses were raised for the presence of the gas: either it was produced by some form of life or by processes unknown to science so far.

At the time, scientist Clara Sousa-Silva, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and one of the authors of the study, revealed to CNN that this would be a “historic discovery”.

“If it’s phosphine, and if it’s life, it means that not only is there life outside the earth, but right next door. And it means that life is very ordinary, perhaps inevitable. It means that our galaxy could be full of life”, analyzed the scientist.