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An international team of scientists announced Monday that it has found possible signs of life on the inhospitable Venus, the closest planet to Earth.
In his study published today in Magazine Nature astronomy, the researchers reported that in the Venusian atmosphere they detected “phosphine” —Phosphane by its official name—, a tantalizing sign of potential life beyond our world.
The group, which includes researchers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan, explained that on Earth phosphine – a foul and toxic gas derived from phosphorus – is only made industrially or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments.
The team first detected phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawaii and confirmed it using the ALMA observatory (Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array) located in northern Chile, due to its higher sensitivity.
1/5 Signs of life on Venus? An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule, #phosphine, in the clouds of #Venus.
#Venus https://t.co/m4MHQIEZkH
Credit: @THAT / M. Kornmesser / L. Calzada and @POT / JPL / Caltech pic.twitter.com/Z83dsyXhy1– ESO Chile (@ESO_Chile) September 14, 2020
“When we got the first hints of phosphine in the Venus spectrum, it was a shock”, said the team leader, Jane Greaves, from Cardiff University, in a statement.
The team believes their finding is significant but admit that confirming the presence of “life” takes a lot more work.
“Probably any organism on Venus would be very different from its cousins on Earth, but they could also be the source of the phosphine detected in the atmosphere “, detailed the statement on the article published in Nature astronomy.
“The discovery raises many questions, for example how some organisms might survive. On Earth, some microbes can cope with up to 5% acid in their environment, but the clouds of Venus are made almost entirely of acid “, Held Clara Sousa, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and member of the team.
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