Potential biosignature found in Venus’ atmosphere
AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM of researchers, led by Jane Greaves (Cardiff University, UK), has announced the detection of phosphine — a gas potentially associated with life — in the relatively cool cloud decks of Venus.
Astronomers have previously found phosphine surfacing from the depths of Jupiter and Saturn, where the high-pressure, hydrogen-rich, and intensely hot environments provide the right conditions to make the molecule. But anaerobic microbes produce it in less extreme places on Earth, too.
Greaves and her colleagues observed Venus first in 2017, with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), then again with
