Emerging first opportunity for ISRO to test claims of life on
Venus - Will India make it? |
WE ARE NOT ALONE: Scientists claim they have found proof of life on Venus (not life as such), our nearest neighbour in the solar system. They located phosphine gas in venusian clouds. Phosphine is produced by anaerobic micro organisms, ie proof of
existence of life. Incidentally, the Indian Venus mission is scheduled for mid-2023 launch to study atmospheric chemistry, dynamics and compositional variations. This could be the earliest anyone could launch a mission to verify the new claim of life on Venus, if India willing. |
by RM NAIR
NEW DELHI, Sept 16: The ISRO's Venus mission planned long ago and scheduled for mid-2023 launch to study atmospheric chemistry, dynamics and compositional variations, could now be used as the first exploration to test the validity of the new claims of anaerobic life on Earth's twin planet, Venus, made by American scientists early this week. Will India be able to tweak its preset programme to include a search for signs of life on the planet as claimed?
The scientists reported on Monday there are signs of life on Venus, our nearest
neighbour in the solar system! They have found phosphine gas in its atmospheric
clouds. Phosphine is produced by micro organism or anaerobic life that doesn’t
require or use oxygen.
The astronomers reported the finding on Monday in Nature Astronomy. “This is
an astonishing and ‘out of the blue’ finding,” said Sara Seager, a planetary
scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the authors
of the papers published.

A suspended phosphine molecule is phosphorus atom with 3 hydrogen atoms attached
and it is highly poisonous. On earth anaerobic micro organisms produce phosphine.
Phosphine is found in our intestines and in some deep sea worms, ie proof of
existence of biological environments associated with anaerobic organisms. Sewage
plants and swamps are also examples. The scientists found a lot of phosphine
in Venusian gas, ranging from 5 to 20 parts per billion.
Often called Earth's twin, Venus, similar to earth in structure, has a temperature
of 471 deg C. Its gaseous layer is composed of sulphuric acid to the extent
of 90%. The dense atmosphere gives rise to greenhouse effect, producing this
temperature.
'Venus is a Russian planet'
A day after the news came through Nature Astronomy, Russia announced an intention
to independently explore Venus, declaring, "We believe that Venus is a Russian
planet," according to TASS news agency. The Russians claim their right flows
from the fact that the first missions to explore Venus were carried out by the
Soviet Union.
Scientists have always been looking outward away from sun for signs of life
because inwards, Venus is roasting hot. Now not that the scientists have seen
any microbes by chance but with telescopes they have just detected phosphine.
They hypothesise that something live is behind the existence of phosphine.
Some scientists question this hypothesis of finding life on Venus saying some
geological processes could be the reason for the presence of phosphine gas.
It can be produced by chemical reactions or volcanos, not involving life forms.
NASA which has been ignoring Venus for so long, responded to the finding on
Twitter, saying, “ It’s time to prioritize Venus.”
Venusian features make research on life on Venus pretty difficult. Its atmospheric
pressure alone is a hundred times higher than that of earth. And its surface
is like a blast furnace. We assert that life cannot exist in such an environment,
because our only frame of reference is earth-based! We can't have it otherwise
because it is imperative that comprehension requires a frame of refernce and
we can have only one. “When looking for life elsewhere, it’s so hard to not
be Earth-centric,” Dr. Sousa-Silva of Harvard said. “Because we only have that
one data point.”
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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What caused Air India Boeing 787 crash? Some questions, some answers | |
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
- The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
- The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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