I for one...

Well...I'll be in my bunker if you need me.

Which is more likely?

1) A planetary atmosphere that we don't completely understand with pressures and temperatures rarely experienced on Earth, with no magnetosphere to protect it from the weirder forms of solar radiation, happens to have some sort of weird high pressure, high temperature, radiation induced chemistry that produces a chemical compound that is also produced on Earth by some organic processes

OR

2) A planet whose lack of a magnetosphere has resulted in the sun blasting away almost all of the atmospheric hydrogen, which means that many common chemical compounds such as water as only found in trace amounts, with temperatures and pressures beyond what would occur on Earth, is teeming with life

@CorruptUser so what you're saying is: You know another, more probable, way for the phosphine being there? Lets hear it.

Yeah, sure it might not be from biological processes. But you're just saying "nah" without backing it up with anything else but disbelief.

@piir2

Strong claims require strong evidence, and the presence of phosphine is nowhere near as strong a piece of evidence as "life on Venus" is as strong a claim.

Also keep in mind that life on Venus is absolutely NOT GOOD for humanity, and the more complex life we find anywhere, the closer we are to extinction. You see, as far as we can tell, we are the only intelligent civilization in existence. If space-faring civilizations were possible, after the billions of years of existence in the Milky Way, surely they'd have probes and such in every single star system, or we'd see evidence of Dyson Spheres and Stellar Engines.

But we don't. Why?

Because something prevents this from happening, something known as the Great Filter. This filter could be some hurdle that makes more complex life so incredibly unlikely that humanity really is unique in the universe, OR this filter is some hurdle in front of us that has doomed and will doom every intelligent species and guarantee that we are killed off before we get to another star system. But, the more life we find, and the more complex it is, the less likely it is that we are unique and the more likely we are about to die. It could be that every single intelligent civilization will, without fail, develop some sort of super-nuke that wipes themselves out. It could be that every intelligent civilization will always develop virtual reality and this results in their own destruction as society decays due to all the workers living a fantasy life instead. It could be that every single life bearing planet is sitting on a clathrate gun, and every civilization in existence will burn enough fossil fuels to cause a runaway greenhouse effect to wipe themselves out.

So yeah, don't get too excited about aliens on Venus.

@CorruptUser We don't see evidence of Dyson Spheres or stellar engines cause until very recently we've been limited to using electromagnetic radiation to "see" what's out there. Considering a Dyson Sphere would block all radiation coming from a star and a stellar engine probably wouldn't emit enough to be detected by even the best telescopes, the answer to why we don't see evidence of such things (if they exist) is that we lack the technology. Heck, we can't even detect 90% of the objects orbiting our own star....

@Nihil
Unfortunately, that's not true. I invite you to look up "Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur" for a better explanation but the simple form is, each shell of a Dyson swarm will absorb the energy coming off the star it surrounds, but it won't make it go completely away, instead radiating it away at a lower frequency. The same way a black object in the sun won't pass, or reflect, much light, but will become warm to the touch. The result is, any star with a Dyson swarm around it should glow like a banked fire in the infrared.

@CorruptUser I don't think anyone's suggested Venus is "teeming with life". As for the Great Pumpkin, er, Filter, I think it's far more likely that we just aren't anywhere near as smart or perceptive as we'd like to think we are, and there is so much more out there in the universe thane we have yet been able to discern. Both time and space are vast, and the average number of advanced civilizations existing simultaneously in a given volume of space may be quite low. As Nihil has already pointed out, there is good reason to think we wouldn't pick up a lot of what is out there anyway.

@CorruptUser
What if there aren't any space-faring civilizations out there yet? What if humans are towards the upper end of technology developed within the galaxy?
Yeah, 2020 has been a downer of a year, but you don't need to be more of a downer.

@piir2 ...considering that the amount of (might be) phosphine found on Venus is barely above instrumental error, it will take a few more teams looking at Venus with better instruments and/or techniques (which currently still don't exist) in order to confirm that there's phosphine (and not something else) in Venus' atmosphere.

BTW, lightning strikes are a known non-biological source of phosphine on Earth.

@CorruptUser I assume you're ranting against life on mars, yes?

@CorruptUser It is possible that microbial Earth life has contaminated Venus or Mars via meteroites. The upper atmosphere of Venus 50km up has temperatures and pressures similar to sea level on Earth. Venus is also the only place in the solar system where it is theoretically possible to create a cloud city like Lando Calrissian's, because an object filled with Earth air would float in carbon dioxide like a helium balloon.

@CorruptUser I dunno, lets ask Titan.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Titan_s_mysterious_radio_wave

This is big and out of all the BS going into the news, why is there not more coverage on this?

Why can't we have a world where scientists are fawned over more than celebs and big conferences are as popular as the Superbowl or FIFA World Cup Final? Seems like idiots who manage to say their lines right while looking good get more attention than people who fundamentally change the way we live. Q_Q

@Steeeve

Because unfortunately our current culture values style [even if often empty and trivial] over substance.

Steve

@Steeeve well for one thing it's rarely ever one 9or even a small number) of scientists who do anything important in isolation. Normally it takes hundreds of them to make advancements that change the way we live, which doesn't lend itself to hero worship at all.

I'd also point out that plenty of scientists ARE famous and considered celebrities, though they are often those who are best able to get ideas across and connect with people through teaching rather than those making the actual discoveries, then there are rarer examples like Stephen Hawking.

And finally just because acting/sport doesn't require the same level of intelligence doesn't mean it is not important. In fact studies by those intelligent scientist you are (rightly) lauding have pointed out time and again the impact that art and sport can have on the mental health of people around the world. So unless you are suggesting that they are wrong then we need the people who you call "idiots" as well.

@Steeeve

Because we still have the Olympics, but have only kept the sports part of it, and have stopped the World's Fair.

To put a positive spin on this, in 100 years time, i's possible that 2020 will be most famous for being the year we first found life elsewhere in the universe.

Also, it was really odd seeing the buildings I did my mining degree in, on the news as the place where the scientists who made the discovery worked.

obviously norway with makeup is more important

*cough cough* ...............Protomolecule

Are you sure it's not just some remnants of Elder Gods farting?

@Tarmaque Whoever smelt it , dealt it.

With all the current Covid-19 action here on Earth, it could be the Protomolecule over there.

@tofei Yes!!!! Exactly what I was thinking, fellow Expanse fan.

At this point, i honestly expect Trumpolini to start a nuclear war with North Korea to avoid having to give up the presidency at the end of the year...

@Nedalin Yknow, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised

@Nedalin let's hope Trump loses the 2020 election

@Nedalin Why start starting external wars now? He'll just refuse to step down, claim election fraud and incite a civil war/revolution/whatever.
Or possibly he actually gets re-elected and continues reshaping the United States into a Banana Republic.

@VeryCreativeName Generally has been signs he's trying to reduce the representation of the left[by attacking mail in voters while encouraging his followers to run out in person rather than staying safe] and notes of him wanting to stack the supreme court with republican members[which, isn't as useful as he thinks, unless he's hoping to make democrats give up and go home and rally his own voters. It's more likely to make his supporters complacent that it's in the bag and galvanize the left that he's doing it, and in both cases the supreme court is an end of career. They can't be voted out or replaced, it's resignation or death, and their word is equivalent to the constitution in authority. They could say the sky is purple and neither congress nor the president can technically deny it, just file a case to overturn it. It's why the supreme court despite republican majority has mostly voted against trump-party lines exist for paper not votes there, it's all their personal views of how the law reads].

Generally trying to invite a civil war or revolt could work given that a lot of his supporters will potentially take up arms in support of him, but I doubt he'll be able to sell the military on full backing him at this point and likely will thus lack the trained firepower to properly win. Generally while a lot of weird and potent guns are in the publics hands, acquiring enough bullets or for that matter knowing how to shoot straight in a gun fight isn't something random civies can do. So generally anyone not part of a "militia" will likely be wasteful with ammo and unable to deal with a propper fire fight and potentially have weapons that dont deal well with panicing when allies are nearby.

'@Nedalin' And damage his multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations? He's on track to be the first U.S. president since Carter to not start any foreign wars, I seriously doubt he's going to screw that up now.

@Nedalin Shhhh! Don't give him ideas!

@Nedalin I think he's more likely to launch an attack against a Central American country. He can claim it's about stopping Mexicans from coming to the US. (Yes, I'm aware that Central America is south of Mexico).

Edit: or Iran. He's been wanting to go to war with Iran since before he got into office.

@ShoggothOnTheRoof Or China. Really there's just so many options, how could he possibly choose just one... Hell, if he tried to start a war with Germany, I really wouldn't be surprised anymore.

@OneOfThemOregonians I wouldn't expect him to go after China: he's a bully and a coward and far less likely to pick a fight with someone who might actually be capable of fighting back.

Norway is looking beautiful.

@Mr_MK Norway is lookin like a snack

@Mr_MK but where's the fish?

@dinomaraschino
Maybe somewhere else getting a makeover? Or it's just social distancing