“They’re making a study of Venus,” Bud reported. “In fact, they let me listen in on some of the signals they were picking up on the radio telescope-but I suppose a space genius like you knows all about such things.”
Tom grinned. “All planets emit such radio signals. It gives us a way to check on their heat, since the frequency of the signal depends on the planet’s surface temperature.”
“How do you like that!” Bud made a wry face. “And here I was hoping to surprise you with my keen technical know-how. Anyhow, I learned that the surface temperature of Venus is a sizzling 585 degrees Fahrenheit-almost three times the boiling point of water.”
The outpost’s astronomers, Bud went on, had told him that this could mean the planet has a hot core. Or it could be caused by sunshine, since the thick cloud veil around Venus would cause a “greenhouse” heat-trapping effect.
“They figure that means no life could exist on Venus at such a temperature,”
Bud ended. “It’s probably just a mass of barren rocks and desert.”
Tom frowned and laid down a file with which he had been smoothing off a welded seam. “Bud,
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that’s one point on which I disagree-I mean, about there being no life on Venus.”
“How come?” Bud asked eagerly. “Have you got any space clues which prove there is?”
Tom shook his head. “No, my point is that we simply don’t know. I admit that no form of life on our planet could exist under such conditions. But remember, earth life grew up from the very first to fit in specifically with conditions here on earth. But that doesn’t prove a thing about life on other planets.