Attempts to find life on Mars may or may not have failed but now it seems there are signs of life on Venus. Of course it won’t be life as we know it (Captain – remember that star trekkin’ song? I’ll try and find it in a minute) but the presence of phosphene gas in larger quantities than expected leads scientists to speculate that there may be life on Venus. This would be amazing but also terrifying because going on our current form we’d no sooner have found it than certain world leaders would want to send people off to destroy it. I am dismayed by what we are already doing to space; the area around the Earth is full of spinning satellites most of which are there to spy on someone or other and don’t get me started on the debris. How long before we decide that Earth is full and we can start sending our garbage into space? Sometimes I think the best thing for the universe would be for us all to die out.
I’m getting a little gloomy here. We can do better and it is equally possible that the best in us will prevail. The phosphene was discovered by Professor Jane Greaves using a telescope in Hawaii; she was so happy she went home and bought ingredients from Sainsbury’s to make a curry. That’s the kind of human being we need in charge of this planet, not the likes of Johnson, Trump and Putin. Someone who discovers life on Venus and instead of sending a missile, goes home to make a curry.
It’s tempting to wonder what this discovery – if it turns out to be true – would make of Holst’s rather sickly ‘Venus’ – not to mention David Bowie.
And here’s the Star Trekking song:
Kirk out
Hang on – there’s a Sainsburys in Hawaii?
Sarada Gray 