The tentative detection of phosphine is likely to fuel calls for a return to Venus—a trip that some say is long overdue, given that the last time NASA sent a probe to the planet was in 1989. “I think it’s a blasted hellhole now, so how much of that ancient signal could have held up?”. Sousa-Silva agrees that the team needs to confirm the phosphine detection by finding additional fingerprints at other wavelengths. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2'); }); Shortly thereafter, a series of papers was published that questioned the observations and conclusions, with one team going as far as to say there was "no phosphine" in Venus's atmosphere at all. and Terms of Use. All rights reserved. She had concluded that phosphine could be one of life’s beacons, even though paradoxically, it’s lethal to everything on Earth that requires oxygen to survive. Kornmesser/L. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- Among the scenarios the scientists investigated were volcanic outgassing, intense lightning strikes, tectonic plates rubbing together, bismuth rain, and cosmic dust. If true, the paper would have been our strongest evidence yet of life beyond Earth, but the tone of some of the resulting criticism – as well as a surprising statement from … Put simply, phosphine shouldn’t be in the Venusian atmosphere. Schulze-Makuch says it’s completely within the realm of possibility to do an atmospheric sample-return mission, sending a spacecraft to swoop through the clouds and gather gas and particles to bring back to Earth. On Earth, this gas signifies … Phosphine, a stinky, toxic and flammable gas found on Earth, has been detected in the atmosphere of Venus. An international team of astronomers has detected phosphine on Venus, potentially signaling signs of life in the planet’s atmosphere, reports Shannon Stirone, Kenneth Chang and Dennis Overbye for The New York Times. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no In the outer solar system, phosphine is made deep in the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn. Whether this compound exists there or not, Venus is still a bundle of mysteries just waiting to be solved! Again, the team detected phosphine. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. “While the surface conditions of Venus make the hypothesis of life there implausible, the clouds of Venus are a different story altogether,” Carl Sagan and Harold Morowitz wrote in the journal Nature back in 1967. She’s skeptical, though. An international team of astronomers detected phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus. “Life is the only thing that will put energy into making molecules,” Sousa-Silva says. The signal is faint, and the team needed to perform an extensive amount of processing to pull it from the data returned by the telescopes. Even so, scientists have considered the possibility that life might exist in the Venusian cloud deck for nearly 60 years, perhaps thriving where conditions are a bit friendlier. The favored path for reduction of atmospheric phosphorus species to phosphine is reduction of phosphoric acid to phosphine (upper reaction pathway on the schematic above). Regardless, several scientists argued at VEXAG that a modest level of even 1 ppm phosphine cannot be attributed to processes like volcanism or lightning. Medical Xpress covers all medical research advances and health news, Tech Xplore covers the latest engineering, electronics and technology advances, Science X Network offers the most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web. or, by Matt Williams, Universe Today. The debate over phosphine on Venus rages on. The study team set out to determine whether phosphine could be made on Venus in the absence of biology. But everything we’ve learned about life on Earth suggests that it will move into every available nook and cranny. Scientists are trying to parse out whether a possible sign of life seen in Venus' clouds is truly there. Used as a chemical weapon during World War I, phosphine is still manufactured as an agricultural fumigant, is used in the semiconductor industry, and is a nasty byproduct of meth labs. While its presence cannot currently be explained through non-biological means, its detection is a glimmer of light for the once-impossible notion of life on Venus. Has there ever been a planet-planet eclipse (i.e., observed from Earth)? It is most commonly produced by organic life forms, although it can be created artifically. Venus is a known natural radio emitter, and phosphine creates a characteristic “dip” in that emission due to its presence. Possible signs of life on planet Venus 01:58. Ironically, though, the scientists who today announced sightings of this noxious gas in the Venusian atmosphere say it could be tantalizing—if controversial—evidence of life on the planet next door. On Monday, an international team of astronomers presented evidence that the cloud tops of Venus contain traces of phosphine — a toxic, rancid gas … “I immediately freaked out, of course. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/possible-sign-of-life-found-on-venus-phosphine-gas.html, made naturally by some species of anaerobic bacteria, finding the chemical on other terrestrial planets could indicate the presence of alien metabolisms. We do not guarantee individual replies due to extremely high volume of correspondence. For most of its history, Venus could have been as habitable as Earth—until sometime in the last billion years, when ballooning greenhouse gases transformed the planet from an oasis into a death trap. Based on the signal’s strength, the team calculated that phosphine’s abundance is roughly 20 parts per billion, or at least a thousand times more than we find on Earth. Their revised findings were also presented at a meeting of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG), a NASA community forum, that took place on November 17. It can be done.”, False color photo by JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic, Possible sign of life on Venus stirs up heated debate. From this, they concluded that there "no statistically significant detection of phosphine" in Venus' atmosphere and that the previous results were, in fact, "spurious.". Now the potential discovery of the gas on Venus means we're seeing life in a new way Even so, Sanjay Limaye, a planetary scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the discovery is exciting enough to continue searching, and preferably from a much closer vantage point. elaborated on the possibility of airborne Venusians, life cycles enabled by periods of dormancy, pushed the idea of cloud-borne life on Venus since the mid-1990s, found organisms flying more than six miles above the Caribbean, phosphine could be one of life’s beacons, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, the last time NASA sent a probe to the planet was in 1989. As far as we know, on rocky planets such as Venus and Earth, phosphine can only be made by life—whether human or microbe. … Named after the ancient Roman goddess of beauty, Venus is known for its exceptional brightness. “The clouds are continuous and thick and globe-spanning.”. Posted: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 An international team of astronomers detected phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus. “I was really fascinated by the macabre nature of phosphine on Earth,” she says. Early observations of the planet revealed that parts of its atmosphere absorb more ultraviolet light than expected, an anomaly that scientists hypothesized could be the work of aerial microbes. But COVID-19 got in the way, and the team’s attempts have been put on hold. Used as a chemical weapon during World War I, … In 2019, Greaves, Sousa-Silva, and their colleagues followed up on the initial phosphine observation using ALMA, an array of telescopes on a high Chilean plateau. Why it matters: The announcement that researchers may have spotted a signal of the gas phosphine in Venus' atmosphere was met with excitement by the public and scientists alike, heralded as a possible sign that microbes could live in the planet's clouds. In June 2017, Cardiff University’s Jane Greaves and colleagues took a look at Venus using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, which scans the sky in radio wavelengths from its perch atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. An extremely important discovery as the concentration of phosphine found in Venus’ atmosphere makes it a possible biomarker, pointing to signs of life. “It’s shirt-sleeve weather, with all these tasty things to eat,” says Martha Gilmore, a Wesleyan University planetary scientist and leader of a proposed mission to Venus, referring to molecules in the planet’s air that microbes could metabolize. Thank you for taking your time to send in your valued opinion to Science X editors. Venus lacks the high temperatures and pressures to form phosphine the way gas giants such as Jupiter do; thus another explanation for its presence is required. She and her colleagues had planned such observations using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a plane-mounted telescope, and with NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. On September 14, a team of researchers led by Jane Greaves of The search for life in our solar system got a lot more exciting this week. More sensitive than the Hawaii-based telescope, ALMA also observes the sky at radio frequencies, and it can detect the energy emitted and absorbed by any phosphine molecules spinning in the Venusian atmosphere. It’s extremely hard to make, and the chemistry in the clouds should destroy the molecule before it can accumulate to the observed amounts. In one study, which was led by researchers from NASA Goddard and appeared in a Nature Astronomy article (Oct. 26, 2020), also cast doubt on the analysis and interpretation of the ALMA and JCMT datasets. “We need to go explore and find out.”. For centuries, hopeful humans thought its surface might be covered in oceans, lush vegetation, and verdant ecosystems, providing a second oasis for life in the solar system. That’s something that the team has not yet done with phosphine. Thus its presence within the atmosphere of Venus raises the tantalizing possibility that something is alive in that atmosphere. In 1978, this missions studies Venus' cloud layer using a probe that it dropped into the atmosphere. He also notes that the standard for remote molecular identification involves detecting multiple fingerprints for the same molecule, which show up at different frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. (Image: © ESO/M. If true, this situation is similar to what scientists have observed on Mars, where methane levels wax and wane over the course of a Martian year and vary from place to place. Scientists caution that the detection itself needs to be verified, as the phosphine fingerprint described in the study could be a false signal introduced by the telescopes or by data processing. Based on their reanalysis of the data, Mogul and his colleagues found evidence of phosphorus. You can be assured our editors closely monitor every feedback sent and will take appropriate actions. Based on the team’s calculations, none of those events could produce the molecule in such abundance. the clouds carry the basic ingredients for life as we know it: absorb more ultraviolet light than expected. The next mission selection is scheduled to take place in 2021. “Venus is such a complex, amazing system, and we don’t understand it. The news was met with its fair share of skepticism and controversy since phosphine is considered a possible indication of life (AKA a biosignature). “On Venus, that puddle never dries up,” Grinspoon says. “There are a lot of things we don’t understand.”. Your opinions are important to us. Despite the acid, the clouds carry the basic ingredients for life as we know it: sunlight, water, and organic molecules. “When I first started talking about it, there was a lot of resistance, mostly because it’s such a harshly acidic environment,” says Grinspoon, who has pushed the idea of cloud-borne life on Venus since the mid-1990s. ESO / M. Kornmesser / L. Calçada & NASA / JPL / Caltech “We used the most favorable wavelength,” says Jane Greaves (Cardiff University, UK), who led the study that detected phosphine at Venus. “It is intriguing that it may point to something strange going on in the atmosphere of Venus, but is it exotic chemistry, or is it life?” he says. Phospine gas detected in the temperate mid-altitude clouds is teasing scientists with a possible signature for life. Your feedback will go directly to Science X editors. In September, news about the possibility of floating, cloud-based life on Venus caused a storm in the science world as tumultuous as the sulfur clouds that rain acid down on the second planet from the Sun. Inspired by the possibility, biochemist Rakesh Mogul of the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona and his colleagues reexamined data from NASA's Pioneer Venus mission. It’s about the same size as our home planet, with similar gravity and composition. In September, an international team announced that they had discovered phosphine gas (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus based on data obtained by the Atacama Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. "This is an astonishing … Gilmore’s concept includes several orbiters and a balloon that would closely study the Venusian atmosphere and look for signs of life. The discovery had been announced in September when a team of researchers led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, UK, claimed it had observed the spectral fingerprint of phosphine (PH 3) in the clouds of Venus. Not long after, Greaves got in touch with Sousa-Silva, who spent her years in graduate school working out whether phosphine could be a viable extraterrestrial biosignature. Science X Daily and the Weekly Email Newsletter are free features that allow you to receive your favorite sci-tech news updates in your email inbox. They were looking for rare gases or molecules that might be biological in origin. According to Greaves and her colleagues, the ALMA data demonstrated a spectral signature that cannot be explained by anything other than the compound phosphene. “It’s a killing machine ... and almost a romantic biosignature because it was a sign of death.”. Clouds are ephemeral on Earth, so it’s unlikely that they support permanent ecosystems, but on Venus, cloudy days are in the forecast for millions or even billions of years. Near the giant planets’ cores, the temperatures and pressures are extreme enough to craft the molecule, which then rises through the atmosphere. An artist's depiction of Venus and, in the inset, phosphine molecules. Calçada & NASA/JPL-Caltech, (CC BY 4.0)) A … Its surface can reach a sweltering 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The content is provided for information purposes only. Perhaps, as the scorched surface became less hospitable, life-forms migrated into the clouds to avoid certain extinction. “Something weird is happening.”. Venus, the second world from the sun, has long been considered Earth’s twin. But it’s too early to conclude that life exists beyond Earth’s shores. that scientists hypothesized could be the work of aerial microbes. The phosphine line was seen first with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in 2016, and then again by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in 2019. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form. If phosphine is present on Venus, and was generated by the mechanism that the authors proposed, it should occasionally rise up to the cloud-tops, making an … Now, we may have found signs of phosphine on the planet next door, astronomers report in the journal Nature Astronomy. On Monday, a team of scientists announced its members had detected phosphine gas … While they have since indicated that their results are "tentative," they remain confident about the presence of phophene in Venus' atmosphere. Several proposed missions are moving through review, including an elaborate, multi-spacecraft concept led by Gilmore of Wesleyan University, which will be evaluated by the planetary science community as it sets its priorities for the next decade of solar system exploration. “If it’s real, it’s a very cool result, but it needs follow-up to make it really convincing.”. “It’s disappointing that we don’t have this proof,” Sousa-Silva says. A paper published in Nature Astronomy by a group of international astronomers explained how they detected phosphine (PH₃), a gaseous molecule […] “They took the right steps to verify the signal, but I’m still not convinced that this is real,” Carpenter says. This, they claim, is further bolstered by the JCMT spectra that indicated the chemical fingerprints of phosphine. The only other explanation was bacteria floating in Venus's cloud deck. In fact, phosphine has been detected in Jupiter's atmosphere, where it forms as a result of planet-sized convective storms that generate tremendous amounts of energy. Jane Greaves, who led the discovery team (and is an astronomer at Cardiff University, U.K.), claims that they were motivated to reexamine their original conclusions because the original ALMA data contained a "spurious signal" that could have thrown off their results. New study springs a surprise, Recombinant collagen polypeptide as a versatile bone graft biomaterial, Abnormal conductivity in low angle twisted bilayer graphene, Indian astronomers detect companion star to V1787 Ori, Melting ice patch in Norway reveals large collection of ancient arrows, A phononic crystal coupled to a transmission line via an artificial atom, Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos, Solar Activity and Space Weather Update thread. An international team of astronomers detected phosphine (PH 3) in the atmosphere of Venus. According to another study that was led by Leiden University (November 17, 2020, Astronomy & Astrophysics), the spectral data obtained by ALMA could be explained by the presence of compounds other than phosphine gas. This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, and provide content from third parties. As far as we know, on rocky planets such as Venus and Earth, phosphine can only be made by life—whether human or microbe. Although phosphine is a sign of life on our planet, Venus is an alien planet, so the science behind the phosphine discovered is unknown. Finding phosphine on Venus would be tantalizing because microbes produce the gas on Earth. Phosphine’ and the Possibility of Life on Venus Scientists found hints of alien life floating in Venus's atmosphere by focusing on a long-ignored, simple compound: phosphine… Maybe phosphine doesn’t actually exist on Venus, or maybe it varies over time. In the September 14, 2020 Nature Astronomy issue Dr. Jane Greaves reports the discovery of 20 ppb of phosphine (PH 3) gas in Venus’ atmosphere, based on millimeter-wave observations [1].This spectacular discovery is simply astounding. It’s just a matter of going,” Gilmore says. Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Although Venus is a roasting world today, observations suggest that it once had a liquid water ocean. I presumed it was a mistake, but I very much wanted it to not be a mistake,” says study co-author Clara Sousa-Silva, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who initially identified phosphine as a potential biosignature. Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. It probably had an ocean for billions of years, and it’s right there. There was also the recent announcement that the amino acid glycine was discovered in Venus's atmosphere, another potential biomarker. An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, today announced the discovery of a rare molecule—phosphine—in the clouds of Venus… While it was found that all of those processes are possible on Venus, they cannot account for the concentration of phosphine observed — which comes in at nearly 20 parts per billion. Phosphine has also been detected in the temperate zone of Venus' atmosphere (approximately 50 km (31 mi) altitude) at 20 ppb, a concentration which is not possible with known chemical processes. “Venus is basically still an alien planet,” he says. Click here to sign in with But phosphine is also made naturally by some species of anaerobic bacteria—organisms that live in the oxygen-starved environments of landfills, marshlands, and even animal guts. Based on the new ALMA data, the team estimates that phosphine levels average at about 1 ppb—about one-seventh of their earlier estimate. Phosphine gas is made by microorganisms, but it is poisonous to animals, including humans. “We have the technology right now to go into the atmosphere of Venus. In other words, if the observation of phosphine on Venus is right, something must be continually replenishing the molecule in the planet’s atmosphere. Phosphine is a colourless, flammable, very toxic gas compound made up of one phosphorus and three hydrogen atoms (PH₃). In the past, scientists have speculated that life could exist in the planet's cloud deck, where temperatures are stable enough that extremophiles could survive. In September, an international team announced that they had discovered phosphine gas (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus based on data obtained by … The announcement in September took the world by storm: Researchers using two radio telescopes found signs that the clouds of Venus were harboring phosphine, a … Dark higher-altitude clouds obscure the brighter mid-altitude clouds in this image of Venus taken by an infrared camera on board Japan's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter. We also know that microbes regularly hitch a ride on cloud particles, and scientists have found organisms flying more than six miles above the Caribbean. ‘Dr. This document is subject to copyright. This could evidence of phosphine or some other phosphorus compound, though Mogul and his team believe phosphine is the most likely candidate. And it’s another Earth. In the meantime, Greaves and other researchers hope to have more time with Earth-based telescopes (including ALMA) to confirm the presence of phosphine. Traces of a rare molecule known as phosphine have been found in the hellish, heavily acidic atmosphere of Venus… Here, the research team indicated that the spectral data that was interpreted as phosphine (PH3) was actually too close to sulfur dioxide (SO2), which is common in Venus atmosphere. Here, we find microbes thriving in hostile, corrosive environments such as hot springs and volcanic fields. In the past, scientists have speculated that life could exist … Early science observations of the planet next door revealed that it is a menace of a world that could kill Earthlings in multiple ways. On Earth, phosphine is rarely found outside of swamps, penguin poop and lightning strikes. In addition to criticism, supporting evidence was also inspired by the team's original paper—which was also presented at VEXAG on November 17. On Venus, there are no known chemistry or photochemical pathways for its creation. If this compound is confirmed in Venus' atmosphere, it would indicate that Venus is capable of supporting extreme lifeforms in niche habitats. Any life there now is “much more likely to be a relic of a more dominating early biosphere,” says Penelope Boston, a NASA astrobiologist who specializes in studying microbes in weird places on Earth. 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. When the corrected ALMA data was posted on November 16th, Greaves and her colleagues ran a fresh analysis and posted it ahead of peer review on arXiv. A model for biological production of phosphine on Venus. For obvious reasons, finding evidence of phosphine on Venus would be very appealing. “When somebody comes up with an extraordinary observation that hasn’t been made before, you wonder if they could have done something wrong.”. Tucked beneath as many as 65 miles of cloud and haze, those roasted rocks are smothered by a bone-crushing amount of pressure, more than 90 times what’s felt on Earth’s surface. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The only non-organic (AKA abiotic) mechanism for the production of phosphine involves high temperatures and pressures, which are common within the atmospheres of gas giants. “It’s tremendously exciting, and we have a sort of obligatory response of first questioning whether the result is real,” says David Grinspoon of the Planetary Science Institute. Luckily, after re-analyzing the ALMA data, the team responsible for the original discovery concluded that there is indeed phosphine in the cloud tops of Venus—just not as much as they initially thought. But if phosphine really is floating through the Venusian cloud deck, its presence suggests one of two intriguing possibilities: that alien life-forms are deftly linking together phosphorus and hydrogen atoms, or that some completely unanticipated chemistry is crafting phosphine in the absence of life. They studied the origin of … But on rocky planets, where conditions are significantly less extreme, there’s no known way to make phosphine in the absence of life—it’s just too energetically demanding. And near the middle of the cloud layer, temperatures and pressures are rather Earthlike. In the relevant paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday, researchers detail their discovery that the upper atmosphere of Venus contains trace amounts of phosphine … Earlier this year, researchers surmised that finding the chemical on other terrestrial planets could indicate the presence of alien metabolisms, and they suggested aiming the sharpest telescopes of the future at faraway exoplanets to probe their atmospheres for signs of the gas. These levels, they indicate, likely peak at five parts per billion (ppm) and vary over time and depending on location. Still, ALMA observatory scientist John Carpenter is skeptical that the phosphine observations themselves are real. Venus: Could it really harbour life? By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy On the more immediate horizon, a smaller mission to study the deep atmosphere of Venus, named DAVINCI+, is one of the four finalists in NASA’s Discovery program competition. For obvious reasons, finding evidence of phosphine on Venus would be very appealing. Something deadly might be wafting through the clouds shrouding Venus—a smelly, flammable gas called phosphine that annihilates life-forms reliant on oxygen for survival. Plus, the planet’s atmosphere is primarily suffocating carbon dioxide populated by sulfuric acid clouds. Or perhaps the archival observations Greaves analyzed didn’t probe deeply enough into the clouds.