VOA慢速英语｜‘Which of Earth’s Neighbors Might Hold Lif...
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[00:00.04]A new study says life in the clouds of Venus is unlikely.
[00:05.96]Scientists from Europe and the U.S. say there is not enough water
[00:12.88]in the planet's clouds to support life as we know it.
[00:18.72]The team started studying the possibility of life in Venus' clouds
[00:25.04]after a surprise announcement in September of last year.
[00:31.92]At that time, a team of scientists said they used telescopes
[00:38.36]to find evidence of the chemical phosphine
[00:42.28]in the thick clouds covering the planet.
[00:47.16]Phosphine is a poisonous gas.
[00:50.44]But on Earth, it is only associated with life.
[00:56.16]The organizers of the study and other experts agreed
[01:01.12]that the presence of phosphine was not proof of life.
[01:06.96]Their findings, however, suggested that organisms could exist
[01:13.00]in the thick, sulfuric acid-filled clouds of Venus.
[01:19.12]But researchers of the recent study used observations from spacecraft.
[01:26.60]They found that the amount of water in Venus' atmosphere
[01:32.44]is more than 100 times too low to support life like Earth's.
[01:39.68]John Hallsworth is a microbiologist
[01:43.84]at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
[01:50.16]He said the amount of water is very low
[01:54.12]and 'an unbridgeable distance from what life requires to be active.'
[02:01.60]His team studied the most dry-tolerant
[02:05.52]and also the most acid-tolerant microbes on Earth.
[02:11.08]The team then decided that the microbes could not survive on Venus.
[02:18.08]The latest findings suggest Venus is unlikely to have
[02:23.56]water-based organisms like ones on Earth.
[02:29.08]But the researchers identified another planet
[02:33.12]with enough water in its clouds
[02:36.00]and the right temperatures to support life – Jupiter.
[02:42.40]'Now I'm not suggesting there's life on Jupiter
[02:46.44]and I'm not even suggesting life could be there,'
[02:50.28]Hallsworth told reporters.
[02:53.36]The team said it was not sure if the nutrients necessary for life
[02:58.96]existed in Jupiter's atmosphere.
[03:02.32]'But still, it's a profound and exciting finding
[03:06.88]and totally unexpected,' Hallsworth said.
[03:11.76]Hallsworth and NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay
[03:17.20]wrote about their findings in Nature Astronomy, published in late June.
[03:24.44]They said further studies will be needed to learn
[03:28.16]whether microbial life might exist deep in the clouds of Jupiter.
[03:35.04]As for Venus, three new spacecraft
[03:38.92]will be going there within the next 10 years.
[03:43.80]NASA is sending two spacecraft next year
[03:48.00]and the European Space Agency is also sending one.
[03:53.92]Hallsworth and McKay do not believe their findings
[03:58.60]about Venus are likely to change.
[04:02.56]'It's unfortunate because I'm very interested
[04:06.28]in searching for life on other worlds
[04:09.12]and I would love to think that Venus is habitable,' McKay said.
[04:15.52]The scientists who wrote the earlier study
[04:19.36]suggested there might be life in the clouds of Venus
[04:23.36]because they found evidence of phosphine gas.
[04:27.20]On Earth, the gas is linked with life.
[04:32.04]Sara Seager is an astrophysicist
[04:35.56]at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
[04:41.56]and was part of the September team.
[04:45.88]She said, 'We are not trying to push Venus
[04:49.96]as a definitely habitable world.
[04:52.92]So far...Venus is inhabitable!'
[04:57.68]Seager added that she supports doing careful research
[05:02.52]'in case there is life on Venus.'
[05:06.44]Any life in Venus' clouds - if it exists
[05:10.76]– might be totally unlike anything on Earth.
[05:15.72]It might have changed to be able to live in the planet's
[05:19.64]extremely hot and severe conditions, scientists say.
[05:24.84]'If there is life in the clouds of Venus,
[05:28.88]then this has to be 'Life as we do not know it,'
[05:33.08]said astrobiologist Janusz Petkowski,
[05:38.00]who works with Seager at MIT.
[05:41.88]Petkowski wondered, 'The question is how different that life can be?'
[05:49.56]I'm Gregory Stachel.
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Words in This Story
associated – adj. connected or linked with something else
sulfuric acid – n. a very strong kind of acid
tolerant – adj. able to allow or accept something that is harmful or unpleasant
habitable – adj. suitable or fit to live in
profound – adj. very great
astrobiologist – n. a person who studies the possible origin, distribution, evolution, and future of life in the universe, including that on Earth, using a combination of methods from biology, chemistry, and astronomy