What our clouds might tell us about Venus
Aerobiology, microorganisms and prospects of life.
Credit: Mendowong Photography / Getty Images
Researchers in the emerging field of aerobiology are using microorganisms swept up in the Earth’s atmosphere to probe the prospects for life in the clouds of Venus and on planets circling other stars.
These organisms aren’t just in breezes blowing dust across the ground. Viable organisms have been found all the way into the stratosphere and may extend to the edge of space.
“We don’t know where Earth’s biosphere stops above our heads,” says David Smith, an aerobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, who was one of several scientists to address the topic yesterday at the virtual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. “It looks like everywhere we sample in the atmosphere we find biomarkers of life.”