Phosphine, a biomarker on Earth, has been detected in the cloud decks of Venus.
>….Despite high levels of acidity, the clouds 50 to 60 kilometres above the surface are a balmy 30 degrees C. And that’s where phosphine has now been found.
“This brings back into play the longstanding — but not much tested — idea of habitable cloud decks on Venus,” said Professor Greaves, who led the international research team.
Professor Greaves and her team first detected the tell-tale wavelength signature emitted by the molecule using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii.
“When Jane sent me the spectrum I sat in front of my computer blinking for about half an hour. I didn’t believe she’d actually found it,” said the telescope’s deputy director, Jessica Dempsey.
Further observations at the more sensitive Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile confirmed the result.
“We aren’t saying it’s a 100 per cent robust detection of life, but what we can say is that we’ve opened it up to the possibility that it is that,” Dr Dempsey said.
“We don’t know any other process that can explain the phosphine detection that we see.”
Professor Greave’s colleagues have modelled a number of different scenarios — including chemical reactions in the clouds, minerals being blown up from the surface, volcanoes, lightning or delivery by meteors — and none could explain the amount of phosphine seen the atmosphere.
