Gas Indicates Possible Hints of Life in Venus's Clouds

What Happened:

• In a study published on Monday, astronomers announced that they have detected the chemical signature for phosphine in Venus's clouds. Phosphine is a gas that is associated with life on Earth and its' presence indicates the possibility of life on Venus.

• Despite the exciting news, several experts have already cautioned that, although Phosphine is considered a marker of life here on Earth, it is far from proof of life on another planet as there could be other causes we haven't considered.

• According to study co-author Sara Seager, an MIT planetary scientist, her team “exhaustively went through every possibility and ruled all of them out: volcanoes, lightning strikes, small meteorites falling into the atmosphere. ... Not a single process we looked at could produce phosphine in high enough quantities to explain our team’s findings.”

• Either way, more research is needed before scientists can draw a conclusion.

Image Credit: Bruno Albino