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Life is not on Venus. New research refutes a groundbreaking discovery

Technically, this is called biosignature. This was initially considered to be the finding of phosphane in the clouds of the infernal atmosphere of Venus. He suggested that microorganisms could live in them. But detecting gases on distant planets brings with it a number of problems. A new study suggests that we did not find phosphane on Venus, but another, completely common, inorganic gas.

“According to our research, phosphane detection is now much less likely,” Victoria Meadows, an astrobiologist and professor of astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle, told NBC television.

A re-analysis of the data from the radio telescopes, from which the existence of phosphane on Venus was originally inferred, showed that the captured signals were emitted by sulfur dioxide, which can be confused with phosphane in certain circumstances. The results of the research, published in January, also confirmed that the captured signals came from heights far above the clouds in which the phosphane could possibly be found. At these heights, its existence is unthinkable, because it would be destroyed by other chemicals. This factor also confirmed the thesis that it should be sulfur dioxide.

Sulfur dioxide is relatively common on Venus, probably the cause of the dense and unbreathable atmosphere of the second planet in the solar system, and is probably emitted into the atmosphere by volcanic activity. It is also part of the earthly atmosphere. It is also produced by volcanoes in our country, but it is also part of the emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Terrestrial phosphane a sign of life?

On the other hand, terrestrial phosphane is produced by microorganisms during the digestion of organic matter. Therefore, it is considered one of the possible space biosignatures. This means that its detection in the atmospheres of distant planets could be a sign of the existence of elementary life.

The British scientific team, which first outlined the possibility of phosphane on Venus, said in its original report that it knew of no planetary chemical process that could produce it. This led him to the idea that he could be excreted on Venus by microbes living in the clouds of the planet, miles on the red-hot surface of Venus. Even after the publication of an American opponent’s study working with recalibrated data from the ALMA telescopes in the Chilean Atacama Desert, the British believe that they detected phosphane, only much less. They now hope that the new data will provide a more detailed answer in the coming weeks.

Ignas Snellen, an astrophysicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who took part in the latest study, said NBC that it was very unlikely that there would be any phosphane on Venus. Recalibrated data from ALMA and previous detection of the James Clerk Maxwell radio telescope in the Hawaiian Islands showed no signs of the presence of this gas in Venus’ atmosphere, unlike the ubiquitous sulfur dioxide.

“I think that’s where the story of phosphane and possible life in the clouds of Venus ends,” Snellen added.

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