Scientists said that they have detected in the acidic clouds of Venus a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may inhabit Earth’s inhospitable neighbour.
- The researchers did not discover actual life forms, but noted that on Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments.
- The international scientific team first spotted the phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and confirmed it using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile.
- On rocky planets such as Venus and Earth, phosphine can only be made by life—whether human or microbe. On Earth, phosphine is associated with life, with microbes living in the guts of animals like penguins, or in oxygen-poor environments such as swamps.
- Used as a chemical weapon during World War I, phosphine is still manufactured as an agricultural fumigant, is used in the semiconductor industry.
- But there are no factories on Venus; and there are certainly no penguins. Hence there may be a life form floating in the Venus atmosphere.
(Source: BBC, National Geographic and Indian Express)
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