In September of last year, a paper announced a startling finding: evidence that a highly unstable chemical is present in the atmosphere of Venus. Since the chemical is expected to be destroyed rather quickly in the Venusian environment, its presence seems to imply that there was a steady source of the chemical, somehow feeding it into the atmosphere of the planet. Looking over the components of that atmosphere, the researchers concluded there’s no obvious way of producing it, which creates a mystery.
Since the chemical, called phosphine (PH3), had already been suggested as a possible sign of living things, speculation immediately began about the possibility of this being evidence of something alive in the clouds of Venus.
But reports like these invariably invite critique from the wider scientific community. Now, months later, a lot of that criticism has rolled in, and the authors went back and revised some of their initial analysis. Overall, their best case is that the levels of the chemical are much smaller than originally reported. But many other researchers are saying that, quite possibly, it’s not there at all.
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