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Scientists announced Monday that they have discovered a gas called “phosphine” in the clouds of Venus that are highly acidic, indicating the possibility of microbes and life on the planet near Earth, in an exciting development that may open broad horizons regarding a matter of great importance to humans.
The researchers did not discover real life forms, but they did note that phosphine on Earth is produced by bacteria that circulate in oxygen-starved environments.
And the international scientific team first detected phosphine with the “James Clerk Maxwell” telescope in Hawaii, and later confirmed it using the huge “Atacama” telescope in Chile.
“I was very surprised, I was actually flabbergasted,” said astronomer Jane Graves of Cardiff University in Wales, who led the research team published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The existence of extraterrestrial life has been an important scientific topic for a long time. Scientists have used probes and telescopes to search for “vital signs,” indirect signs of life, on other planets and moons in our solar system and beyond.
“With what we currently know about Venus, the most plausible explanation for phosphine, although it may seem fanciful, is life,” said Clara Souza Silva, a molecular astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-author of the research.
“I must emphasize that life, as an explanation of our discovery, must be, as always, the last resort … This is important because if (this gas) is phosphine, and if (it is proven) that this is life, then we are “We are not alone. It also means that life itself must be very common, and there must be many other inhabited planets throughout our galaxy. “
And phosphine, which is a phosphorous atom combined with 3 hydrogen atoms, is very toxic to humans.
Ground-based telescopes, like the ones used in this research, are helping scientists study the chemistry and other properties of celestial bodies.
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