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From: TT
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Photo: J. Greaves / Cardiff University / JAXA / AP / TT
Venus is about the size of Earth, with a similar mass. Extensive volcanic eruptions 600-800 million years ago are believed to have dramatically transformed the entire surface of the planet. Stock Photography.
This fall’s dizzying discovery of possible life on our neighboring planet has begun to unravel. Researchers have discovered a measurement error. But many questions remain.
In September, an international research team reported that they had found traces of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. It is a gas that until now has only been linked to processes in living organisms. The gas was also discovered in the part of the planet’s atmosphere that is considered to have better conditions for life compared to the hostile environment, to say the least.
So speculation about an unknown circulating life form, perhaps some form of bacteria, quickly took shape.
But just as quickly, the discovery began to be scrutinized carefully, in the normal scientific order. And now it turns out that a misleading signal from the telescope had been misinterpreted in the original study. The amount of phosphine is probably only one-seventh of what the researchers first thought, if it is phosphine at all. There may also be traces of other gas giving similar measurement values.
However, the problem is far from complete. And the researchers’ enthusiasm seems unchanged ahead of the new expedition planned for Venus 2025, as a specially equipped measuring probe can provide more information on the amount of phosphine and other substances around the enigmatic planet.
– There are 1,001 reasons to return to Venus, and if phosphine disappears, there are still 1,000 reasons left, astrobiologist David Grinspoon tells Nature.
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