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A group of astronomers led by Dr. Jane Greaves of Cardiff University has announced that they have detected the presence of the chemical compound. phosphine, floating in the clouds that surround the planet Venus.
Phosphine is a curious molecule composed of one phosphorus and three hydrogen atoms (PH3), giving rise to a colorless gas, explosive at the Earth’s ambient temperature, which also dissolves in water, smells like garlic and is extremely toxic.
On our planet, phosphine (or phosphane) occurs naturally in small amounts as a result of the degradation of organic matter. It is the result of the decomposition of certain microbes that live without oxygen (anaerobes), although it can also be generated industrially to make plastics and insecticides. In the opinion of the team of researchers from Wales, the phosphine discovered on Venus could have produced microbes of this type in the gas clouds around this planet.
In the scientific community, this statement has generated a huge surprise, because no planet in our solar system is less likely than Venus to host life. Their The average temperature is around 464 degrees Celsius, and its atmospheric pressure is about 90 times that of the earth.. That is, it is equivalent to being 1000 meters deep in any of the seas of our planet.
A day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days and rotates in the opposite direction. The sun “rises” in the west and sets in the east. The atmosphere of Venus is also extremely dense and is composed mainly of carbon dioxide and a small amount of nitrogen, which produces a strong greenhouse effect, which makes Venus even hotter than Mercury, despite being further from the sun.
the winds in the atmosphere of Venus it can reach up to 350 km / hour and, although it is slower on the planet’s surface, it can still sweep everything in its path. The clouds are thick, as they are composed mainly of sulfur droplets and sulfuric acid. This makes it impossible to see the details of the surface of Venus from Earth. However, probes that were sent from Earth during the 1970s have revealed a planet surface that is barren, scorched, and made up of sharp, overhanging rocks, similar to basalt. Approximately 70 km above the clouds of Venus, the temperature drops to minus 45 degrees. No microscopic life form that we know of on earth could thrive in such hellish conditions. However, the presence of phosphine in considerable quantities has made astronomers stop to think. It is known that this strange molecule can also be generated by volcanic eruptions, lightning and solar radiation, but not in such large quantities as those detected.
The discovery of phosphine has raised more questions than answers. Is what these spectroscopic studies (relating electromagnetic radiation to matter) have revealed is actually phosphine or could it be a similar molecule? If it really is phosphine, is it its biological origin, arising from hitherto unknown microbes, or is it simply the result of strange physical reactions on the planet? In fact, Saturn and Jupiter also have phosphine, which is produced at high temperatures at their centers and then rises to their gaseous atmospheres.
What kind of bacteria or other microbe could survive suspended in such inhospitable clouds of gas? What would be the characteristics of the cell walls or their membranes that would prevent them from being punctured by something as corrosive as sulfuric acid? Could such microbes have been formed by chemical evolution, or could they have originated on Earth? It is known that there are abundant amounts of bacteria and fungi about 15 km from the planet’s surface, dispersed through the atmosphere by hurricanes. Could these microbes have accidentally found their way to Venus, the planet closest to ours?
Many of these questions will only be answered by samples taken directly from the clouds that surround the “planet of love.” And thatAs things are now, it will take a long time.
At the moment, this rare little phosphine molecule is not strong enough evidence to support such an innovative hypothesis as the existence of life on Venus.
Antonio Cruz, biologist and author of books and articles on science and faith issues.
