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As early as 1978, the NASA spacecraft was able to identify phosphines in Venus’s atmosphere, but the discovery was not addressed for 42 years. It took another scientific observation to bring the above result into the spotlight, writes Live Science.
On September 14 this year, the journal Nature Astronomy published a sensational study: a rare molecule, phosphine consisting of hydrogen and phosphorus, was discovered in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, that gas is only produced industrially and by microbes living in an oxygen-poor environment. Until now, the moons of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have been at the crossroads of life-seeking research, and very few have speculated that certain life forms may survive in the hellish world of Venus.
It was no accident that one of NASA’s biochemists, Rakesh Mogul, was surprised: the researcher and some of his colleagues had been able to find possible traces of phosphine in the clouds of Venus decades before.
The probe that identified the molecules was the legendary Pioneer-13 that arrived on the planet in 1978.
Following an article in Nature Astronomy, Mogul et al. Re-verified data from the Large Probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer (LNMS) in the United States. Their study, published on September 22, but only available on the non-professional arXiv site at the moment, confirms that there is indeed phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus.
Why could they ignore phosphine?
When Pioneer-13 reached Venus, a larger unit detached, carrying the instrument that detected phosphine into the planet’s clouds. The LNMS took samples from the atmosphere and then ran them through a mass spectrometer. When the experts received the data, focusing primarily on the more exotic unknown chemicals, they weren’t as interested in phosphorous-based compounds like phosphine.
When the Mogul research team re-examined the LNMS data, they noted that phosphine is mainly present in the mid- and lower-level clouds of Venus, and these are the regions most likely to have life present. In addition, significant amounts of phosphorus were found in the atmosphere, probably derived from phosphine.
The LNMS was not designed to search for phosphine, so it was very difficult to distinguish the compound from gases of similar mass.
However, the Pioneer-13 data included a molecule that was exactly the same weight and quantity as phosphine in the Nature Astronomy paper.
According to the Mogul, the phosphine data could have been removed at that time because
it was simply considered impossible for such compounds to exist in an oxidizing Venus-like atmosphere.
We need tough robots
The Mughals also found signs on Venus of substances (chlorine, oxygen, hydrogen peroxide) that may even come from biological processes.
According to the researcher, Venus is at least as exciting a planet as Mars and should be explored with similar intensity. The only hurdle is that conditions on the celestial body – enormous temperature and pressure – destroy the research team sent to the surface in minutes, so engineers must develop more effective defenses before embarking on a full-scale mission on Venus. .
In addition to NASA, Europe, Russia and India would also send space probes to study the planet.
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