RETRACTED ARTICLE: Life on Venus and the interplanetary transfer of biota from Earth
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REVIEW ARTICLE
Life on Venus and the interplanetary transfer of biota from Earth Rhawn Gabriel Joseph1
Received: 4 September 2019 / Accepted: 28 October 2019 © The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Evidence and observations favoring the hypothesis that Venus is habitable, and the celestial mechanisms promoting the interplanetary transfer of life, are reviewed. Venus may have been contaminated with Earthly life early in its history via interplanetary transfer of microbe-laden bolide ejecta; and this seeding with life may have continued into the present via spacecraft and due to radiation pressure and galactic winds blowing microbial-laden dust ejected from the stratosphere via powerful solar winds, into the orbit and atmosphere of Venus. Venus may have had oceans and rivers early in its history until 750 mya, and, hypothetically, some of those species which, theoretically, colonized the planet during that time, may have adapted and evolved when those oceans evaporated and temperatures rose. Venus may be inhabited by a variety of extremophiles which could flourish within the lower cloud layers, whereas others may dwell 10 m below the surface where temperature may be as low as 200 ◦ C—which is within the tolerance level of some hyperthermophiles. Speculation as to the identity of mushroom-shaped specimens photographed on the surface of Venus by the Russian probe, Venera 13 support these hypotheses. Keywords Venus · Extremophiles · Thermophiles · Atmosphere · Subsurface · Microorganisms · Solar winds · Radiation pressure · Galactic winds · Stratosphere · Fungi · Panspermia · Lithopanspermia interplanetary transfer of life
B R.G. Joseph
[email protected]
1
Astrobiology Associates of Northern California San Francisco, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
1 Overview: hypotheses, observations, evidence Observations and evidence for the possibility of life on the subsurface and clouds of Venus, and celestial mechanics promoting the transfer of life from Earth, are reviewed, and images of specimens resembling fungal mushroom-shaped organisms photographed by the Russian Space Probe Venera 13, on the surface of Venus are presented (Figs. 1–5) with the caveat that similarities in morphology are not proof of life. A number of scientists have hypothesized that Earth may be seeding this solar system, including Venus, Mars, and the Moons of Jupiter and Saturn, with microbes buried within ejecta following impact by comets and meteors (Cockell 1999; Gladman et al. 1996; Melosh 2003; Mileikowsky et al. 2000a,b; Gao et al. 2014; Schulze-Makuch et al. 2004), and via microbes attached to space craft (Joseph 2018). Extremophiles attached to dust particles which are lofted into Earth’s upper atmosphere and via powerful solar winds blown into space (Joseph and Schild 2010) may also be transported by radiation pressure and galactic winds into the atmosphere of Venus (Arrhenius 1908, 1918). Atmospheric contamination by Earthly life would account for data indicating microbes may be dwelling within and attached to particles in the lowe
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