Possible Signs of Life Detected On Venus

MoThugz writes "This article from the The Houston Chronicle discusses the discovery of mysterious swirling patches on the surface of the planet which may be communities of bacteria. These bacteria might be a genetically-enhanced version of the thermophiles which are known to survive in extreme temperatures. The article suggested the bacteria could be using ultraviolet light from the sun as an energy source, which would explain the presence of strange dark patches on ultraviolet images of the planet."

Comments

Whoa...

[warmcat]

''Schulze-Makuch said there may be unknown ways to produce hydrogen or carbonyl sulphide, but both need catalysts''

These guys are GOOD!

Slashdot is ruining everything!

[Jugalator]

Look what you did!

Now you made Google News post old news as well and we get this chain of Google News from Slashdot News from Earlier Slashdot News (which I'm sure got covered on Google News as well).

Hm... On the other hand... Let's just blame it all on Houston Chronicle which posted the old story first. :-)

New slashdot category

[pubjames]

I think we need a new category on Slashdot; "Wild speculation about extraterrestrial life based on insubstantial evidence".

Re:Sounds familiar...

[OrangeSpyderMan]

Fellow Slashdotters, say hello to our newest reader, Timothy.

All together now, "Hello, Timothy." :-)

Genetically enhanced?

[stere0]

These bacteria might be a genetically-enhanced version of the thermophiles which are known to survive in extreme temperatures

Does this only sound silly to me? They can't be genetically enhanced. If they exist, they're just the way our lord Venus Christ created them!

Re:There is no life at all there.

[richie2000]

People even thought they saw what looked like giant irrigation canals.

That was Mars (Percival Lowell mapped and counted the canals). Sure, it's confusing, what with them having a capital letter in common, not to mention the same number of letters! Still, they're different. The moon was believed to be made out of cheese and Mars had lots little green men with shovels.

Re:There is no life at all there.

[unapersson]

There is no life elsewhere in the universe! Give it up.

Dear God, please stop trolling.

thanks.

Re:Not good news for terraformers

[evilviper]

Why would you want to teraform Venus? Is Death Valley in the middle of summer too cool for you? Do you find lava to be refreshing? Been looking for a place where the trees spontaneously combust? Think it takes far too long to get skin cancer on Earth?

If so, maybe Venus is the place for you.