{"id":617117,"date":"2026-09-07T10:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617117\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:28:12","slug":"are-we-the-aliens-earth-could-be-sending-life-to-venus-say-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617117\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we the aliens? Earth could be sending life to Venus, say scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A study suggests that microscopic life blasted off Earth by asteroid impacts could have reached Venus\u2019s atmosphere over billions of years \u2013 raising the possibility that any life in Venus\u2019s clouds may not necessarily have originated there.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers stress, however, that the idea is theoretical and not evidence that life exists on Venus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, investigated a form of lithopanspermia \u2013 the hypothesis that life can be transferred naturally between planets on rocks ejected by large impacts.<\/p>\n<p>More amazing Chandra observations<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1181\" height=\"664\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/03.-KY3X29.jpg\" alt=\"Alien microbes in space above Mars, conceptual illustration.\" class=\"wp-image-188449\"\/>Credit: Mark Garlick, Science Photo Library, Alamy<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1227\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/JAXA-Venus-copy-02ab05e.jpg\" alt=\"A view of Venus captured by JAXA's Akatsuki orbiter. \u00a9 PLANET-C Project Team\" class=\"wp-image-49077\"\/>A view of Venus captured by JAXA&#8217;s Akatsuki orbiter. \u00a9 PLANET-C Project Team<\/p>\n<p>Using computer models, the team estimated how often Earth material could be launched into space, survive the journey to Venus and remain viable after entering the planet\u2019s atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The researchers modelled how meteoroids ejected from Earth would behave on entering Venus\u2019s atmosphere using the \u2018pancake model\u2019, which describes how meteors fragment and disperse horizontally after an explosive atmospheric airburst.<\/p>\n<p>Their results suggest around 100 microbial cells could reach Venus\u2019s temperate cloud layer each year, amounting to roughly 20 billion cells over the past billion years.<\/p>\n<p>The focus on Venus\u2019s cloud deck stems from the comparatively mild conditions 50\u201365km (30\u201340 miles) above the surface, despite the clouds\u2019 extreme acidity.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"754\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-1214628924-779ef9d.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the lithopanspermia theory of life on Earth. Illustration by Tobias Roetsch\/Future Publishing via Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-61626\"\/>Illustration of the lithopanspermia theory of life on Earth. Illustration by Tobias Roetsch\/Future Publishing via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The study builds on decades of research into panspermia, but many unknowns remain.<\/p>\n<p>The model relies on extrapolations for its estimates of impact frequencies, microbial survival in space, atmospheric entry and the hostile chemistry of Venus\u2019s clouds.<\/p>\n<p>The authors acknowledge these uncertainties, describing their calculations as a framework for assessing what is physically possible rather than evidence that the process actually occurs.<\/p>\n<p>The research arrives as interest in Venus continues to grow ahead of a new generation of missions that plan to visit, including NASA\u2019s DAVINCI and VERITAS spacecraft and ESA\u2019s Envision orbiter, all of which aim to shed new light on our enigmatic neighbour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A study suggests that microscopic life blasted off Earth by asteroid impacts could have reached Venus\u2019s atmosphere over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-617117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}