New compelling evidence of life on Venus

[Diarcesia]

Aliens.

My gut feeling says that they're microbes. I'll be more let down that they're not really extraterrestrial but brought in by our probes.

Dude, that would be stunning in and of itself! A probe hasn't landed on Venus in forty years. We would have seeded a celestial body!

I get mixed feelings from that.

Yeah, seeding a celestial body sounds awesome. On the other hand, I'm concerned if it would boomerang on us in the long run.

[Valrifell]

My gut feeling says that they're microbes. I'll be more let down that they're not really extraterrestrial but brought in by our probes.

This. Do you think the Soviets could be bothered to sterilize the goddamn shotgun blast of probes they launched at Venus? I think not. Bet $20 it's just a bunch of Venera hitchhiker microbes.

That's remarkably unlikely, even if it weren't sterile. Venus is an incredibly harsh place to live, even in the (only relatively) nice upper atmosphere.

[Solvokina]

As a hellhole as Venus is I doubt somehow life can be found there now. However, in the past, there may have been. I still wonder what catastrophic event happened to kill off life there

[Vetalia]

This. Do you think the Soviets could be bothered to sterilize the goddamn shotgun blast of probes they launched at Venus? I think not. Bet $20 it's just a bunch of Venera hitchhiker microbes.

They did so from at least Venera 3 in 1965 onward, so yes (the first two were either lost to heliocentric orbit or burned up). Make no mistake, the Soviet space program was every bit as professional and focused as its counterpart in the United States and were well aware of the potential of contamination.

[Valrifell]

As a hellhole as Venus is I doubt somehow life can be found there now. However, in the past, there may have been. I still wonder what catastrophic event happened to kill off life there

A total sterilization of a planet seems terribly unlikely just looking at the extremophiles that we've had on Earth. If life existed on a planet at some point, then it's more likely that life still exists there than not.

[Kiu Ghesik]

This. Do you think the Soviets could be bothered to sterilize the goddamn shotgun blast of probes they launched at Venus? I think not. Bet $20 it's just a bunch of Venera hitchhiker microbes.

They did so from at least Venera 3 in 1965 onward, so yes (the first two were either lost to heliocentric orbit or burned up). Make no mistake, the Soviet space program was every bit as professional and focused as its counterpart in the United States and were well aware of the potential of contamination.

Huh, guess I was wrong, then.

I suppose cynicism does have its limits when compared to research and reason after all.

[Diarcesia]

They did so from at least Venera 3 in 1965 onward, so yes (the first two were either lost to heliocentric orbit or burned up). Make no mistake, the Soviet space program was every bit as professional and focused as its counterpart in the United States and were well aware of the potential of contamination.

Huh, guess I was wrong, then.

I suppose cynicism does have its limits when compared to research and reason after all.

In a way the Soviet space program did some awesome things.
Soyuz rockets (reliable as heck)
Buran
An-225

[Vetalia]

As a hellhole as Venus is I doubt somehow life can be found there now. However, in the past, there may have been. I still wonder what catastrophic event happened to kill off life there

Honestly, nobody knows aside from the fact that something very, very bad happened around 750 million years ago leading to a global resurfacing event releasing massive amounts of gases and extreme climate change. The worst extinction level events on Earth involved a localized resurfacing event at best but nothing like this. The UFO fan in me makes me think of a truly planet-destroying war, far worse than anything we can conceive of at this point in our technological development.

Mars bothers me more because it was once habitable but then the dynamo stopped and once a tipping point was reached it never stopped getting colder, drier and inhabitable.

[Kiu Ghesik]

Huh, guess I was wrong, then.

I suppose cynicism does have its limits when compared to research and reason after all.

In a way the Soviet space program did some awesome things.
Soyuz rockets (reliable as heck)
Buran
An-225

Oh yeah, Soyuz is awesome. The only mass-produced spacecraft in the world is nothing to scoff at.

[Vetalia]

Huh, guess I was wrong, then.

I suppose cynicism does have its limits when compared to research and reason after all.

Not a problem, a lot of people conflate the USSR's shoddiness in various areas with its accomplishments in the space and biological technology sectors...the Soviet Union was deadly serious about its accomplishments in space as a means to show the world the merits of Communism and the centrally planned economy and accomplished landmark advances during the glory days of the 1950s and 1960s when their economy was booming. Even now Russia is the only other nation in the world with a stock of viable smallpox virus in the VECTOR Institute, along with the US CDC.

AFAIK, for at least a decade until now the Soyuz was the only way to get to space...and its name isn't referring to the Russian Federation. It's based off of the old Soviet R-7 from the 1950s that was the first ICBM in the world

[Diarcesia]

As a hellhole as Venus is I doubt somehow life can be found there now. However, in the past, there may have been. I still wonder what catastrophic event happened to kill off life there

Honestly, nobody knows aside from the fact that something very, very bad happened around 750 million years ago leading to a global resurfacing event releasing massive amounts of gases and extreme climate change. The worst extinction level events on Earth involved a localized resurfacing event at best but nothing like this. The UFO fan in me makes me think of a truly planet-destroying war, far worse than anything we can conceive of at this point in our technological development.

Mars bothers me more because it was once habitable but then the dynamo stopped and once a tipping point was reached it never stopped getting colder, drier and inhabitable.

Can we test the Silurian Hypothesis on Venus?

[Ethel mermania]

I think the paradigm of how we think of space undergoing a massive shift.

We use to think there was no water in the universe, turns out its freaking everywhere. I think its going to be the same for life, it is going to be in a lot of places we did not expect it could exist.

[Kiu Ghesik]

I think the paradigm of how we think of space undergoing a massive shift.

We use to think there was no water in the universe, turns out its freaking everywhere. I think its going to be the same for life, it is going to be in a lot of places we did not expect it could exist.

I wouldn't be surprised if we found out the Great Filter was multicellular organisms or developing mitochondria-analogues or something along those lines. Pond scum planets ahoy!

[Neanderthaland]

I think the paradigm of how we think of space undergoing a massive shift.

We use to think there was no water in the universe, turns out its freaking everywhere. I think its going to be the same for life, it is going to be in a lot of places we did not expect it could exist.

Was that widely believed? Or was that just a plot devise for V that turned into a piece of pop-culture?

[Vetalia]

Can we test the Silurian Hypothesis on Venus?

I would say it's highly unlikely at best given the global resurfacing event that would have destroyed most, if not all artifacts from the period and subducted any of the rest into the rock. However, any pure or high-grade aluminum alloys of the type used since the early 19th century here on Earth would survive the temperatures and pressures on the surface of Venus intact. So possibly materials such as the aluminum cap of the Washington Momument, aircraft wreckage and electrical wire might have survived buried in the volcanic basalt.

[Aureumterra]

As a hellhole as Venus is I doubt somehow life can be found there now. However, in the past, there may have been. I still wonder what catastrophic event happened to kill off life there

Honestly, nobody knows aside from the fact that something very, very bad happened around 750 million years ago leading to a global resurfacing event releasing massive amounts of gases and extreme climate change. The worst extinction level events on Earth involved a localized resurfacing event at best but nothing like this. The UFO fan in me makes me think of a truly planet-destroying war, far worse than anything we can conceive of at this point in our technological development.

Mars bothers me more because it was once habitable but then the dynamo stopped and once a tipping point was reached it never stopped getting colder, drier and inhabitable.

Hot take: A civilization similar to WW2 Japan lived there but was nuked out of existence due to refusal to surrender, an arkship of survivors fled but were shot down, crashed into Earth, and caused the Permian extinction

/s

[Vetalia]

I think the paradigm of how we think of space undergoing a massive shift.

We use to think there was no water in the universe, turns out its freaking everywhere. I think its going to be the same for life, it is going to be in a lot of places we did not expect it could exist.

Was that widely believed? Or was that just a plot devise for V that turned into a piece of pop-culture?

I assume Ethel was referring to liquid water, not the simple existence of H20 in the universe...until Galileo passed by Europa in the late 80s, the only place with liquid water was the Earth.

[Ethel mermania]

I think the paradigm of how we think of space undergoing a massive shift.

We use to think there was no water in the universe, turns out its freaking everywhere. I think its going to be the same for life, it is going to be in a lot of places we did not expect it could exist.

Was that widely believed? Or was that just a plot devise for V that turned into a piece of pop-culture?

Back in your time, moons could not possibly have volcano's

[Solvokina]

Honestly, nobody knows aside from the fact that something very, very bad happened around 750 million years ago leading to a global resurfacing event releasing massive amounts of gases and extreme climate change. The worst extinction level events on Earth involved a localized resurfacing event at best but nothing like this. The UFO fan in me makes me think of a truly planet-destroying war, far worse than anything we can conceive of at this point in our technological development.

Mars bothers me more because it was once habitable but then the dynamo stopped and once a tipping point was reached it never stopped getting colder, drier and inhabitable.

Hot take: A civilization similar to WW2 Japan lived there but was nuked out of existence due to refusal to surrender, an arkship of survivors fled but were shot down, crashed into Earth, and caused the Permian extinction

/s

Hotter take: Venus was involved in a WH40K war

[Kiu Ghesik]

Hot take: A civilization similar to WW2 Japan lived there but was nuked out of existence due to refusal to surrender, an arkship of survivors fled but were shot down, crashed into Earth, and caused the Permian extinction

/s

Hotter take: Venus was involved in a WH40K war

Captured footage of the destruction of Venus, 999.M41

[Vetalia]

Mars bothers me more because it was once habitable but then the dynamo stopped and once a tipping point was reached it never stopped getting colder, drier and inhabitable.

Hot take: A civilization similar to WW2 Japan lived there but was nuked out of existence due to refusal to surrender, an arkship of survivors fled but were shot down, crashed into Earth, and caused the Permian extinction

/s[/quote]

It'd take a lot more than that to make the global resurfacing event happen...we'd be in Stephen Kings' Dark Tower territory for the magnitude of weapons required.

[Kombinita Socialisma Demokratio]

Welcome to our Microbial over Lords!

And what are they gonna do, multiply on me?

Create hallucinogens that everyone gets addicted to. Similar to sugarcane/sugarbeets producing another very addictive chemical.

[Kowani]

Hot take: A civilization similar to WW2 Japan lived there but was nuked out of existence due to refusal to surrender, an arkship of survivors fled but were shot down, crashed into Earth, and caused the Permian extinction

/s

Hotter take: Venus was involved in a WH40K war

The Planet Broke Before The Guard Did!

[US-SSR]

Hotter take: Venus was involved in a WH40K war

Captured footage of the destruction of Venus, 999.M41

All your phosphene are belong to us.

[Solvokina]

Captured footage of the destruction of Venus, 999.M41

All your phosphene are belong to us.

2000's internet, the nostalgia