News of life possibly being detected on Venus sparks meme-fest online

The researchers did not discover actual life forms, but noted that on Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments. The international scientific team first spotted the phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and confirmed it using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile.

The new findings are cited as a tantalising sign of potential life beyond Earth, and sparked a lot of reactions on social media. Social media had plenty of jokes and memes with #Aliens and #LifeOnVenus dominating trends online.

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Phosphine – a phosphorus atom with three hydrogen atoms attached – is highly toxic to people. Some scientists have suspected that the Venusian high clouds, with mild temperatures around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius), could harbour aerial microbes that could endure extreme acidity.

These clouds are around 90 per cent sulphuric acid. Microbes on Earth cannot survive that acidity.

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