Why Venus is back in the exploration limelight

[Admin]

We may be witnessing the start of a bona fide Venus exploration campaign.

Why Venus is back in the exploration limelight : Read more

 

[rod]

"So Venus has become a more attractive astrobiological target in recent years, just as the search for alien life has increasingly moved from the scientific fringes into the mainstream."

As the article reports, statements like this quote from the report suggest what is the primary reason for going back to Venus. Looking for life Charles Darwin published his view on the origin of life (abiogenesis).

"Though no evidence worth anything has as yet, in my opinion, been advanced in favor of a living being being developed from inorganic matter, yet I cannot avoid believing the possibility of this will be proved some day in accordance with the law of continuity.1", Charles Darwin, 1. “To Daniel Mackintosh 28 February 1882,” Darwin Correspondence Project, letter 13711, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-13711.

Abiogenesis must be validated for astrobiology as a science. Venus and Mars are in the focus to find life there. Other exoplanets at the moment remain much more difficult to verify life on them compared to Venus or Mars in our solar system.

 

[COLGeek]

Regardless of the implications of possible past (current?) life on Venus, there is value in understanding the Venusian atmosphere and its lessons/implications for our own, here on Earth.

Fascinating science here...seems looking at the moons of Jupiter should be considered for future exploration as well.

 

[rod]

Regardless of the implications of possible past (current?) life on Venus, there is value in understanding the Venusian atmosphere and its lessons/implications for our own, here on Earth.

Fascinating science here...seems looking at the moons of Jupiter should be considered for future exploration as well.

Just my thinking here. Astrobiology works as a science because of abiogenesis and perhaps panspermia for life origin (special creation would/could cause havoc here). Venus and Earth are very different including the carbon abundance on the planets, a problem in the solar nebula model for the origin of both planets and how Earth evolved and Venus and with such different atmospheres and atmospheric densities.

 

[sam85geo]

It seems to me that we are simply and randomly fortunate as a species, as a planet, as a solar system, as a location on a galactic arm in a stable galaxy. The Bayesian probability is daunting to say the least. Hopefully, data gathered from Venus, the Sun and Mars will guide us to keep all things fortunate.