Overview

• Revealed July 10 at the Royal Astronomical Society meeting, VERVE is a UK-led CubeSat-scale probe attached to ESA’s EnVision orbiter slated for launch in 2031.
• Backed by a $58 million budget, VERVE will detach from EnVision upon arrival to survey phosphine, ammonia and other hydrogen-rich gases in Venus’s clouds.
• Initial phosphine detections in 2020 and 2023 and ammonia in 2024 were followed by JCMT measurements showing day-night and regional variations that suggest possible photochemical breakdown.
• Conditions in the cloud deck nearly 50 kilometers above Venus feature pressures and temperatures similar to Earth’s surface, raising the possibility of extremophile microbes.
• Proposed U.S. budget cuts could cancel NASA’s DAVINCI mission planned for 2030 and enhance reliance on VERVE for definitive biosignature measurements.