Hull, England – The astronomical community is abuzz with new findings from Venus, presented on July 17 at a Royal Astronomical Society meeting in Hull, England. Four years after the initial controversial discovery of phosphine gas in Venus’s clouds, the same research team has returned with more robust data, strengthening the case for phosphine’s presence on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor.
In 2020, the detection of phosphine gas a potential biomarker on Earth on Venus ignited debate. Subsequent observations failed to replicate these findings, casting doubt on the initial results. However, new data presented by the team suggests a more compelling case for phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere.
Enhanced Observations and Technological Advances
The researchers have significantly bolstered their confidence through new observational campaigns and improved instrumentation. A new receiver on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii was pivotal in gathering extensive data.
Dave Clements, a reader in astrophysics at Imperial College London, highlighted the increase in data volume: “We had three observation campaigns and in just one run, we collected 140 times as much data as we did in the original detection,” he explained. The new data indicates repeated detections of phosphine.
Discovery of Ammonia
In addition to phosphine, a separate team, including Clements, has detected ammonia in Venus’s atmosphere. “That is arguably more significant than the discovery of phosphine,” Clements remarked. Ammonia’s presence could provide insights into potential biological processes on Venus, unlike phosphine, whose biological origins remain uncertain.
On Earth, phosphine is a toxic gas produced by decaying organic matter or bacteria, while ammonia is primarily produced by bacteria decomposing plant and animal waste. The detection of these gases on Venus a planet with extreme surface temperatures and corrosive sulfuric acid clouds challenges current understanding.
“Phosphine has been discovered in the atmosphere of Saturn, but that’s not unexpected because Saturn is a gas giant. Its atmosphere contains a lot of hydrogen, so hydrogen-based compounds like phosphine or ammonia dominate there.”
In contrast, rocky planets like Earth, Venus, and Mars have oxygen-dominated atmospheres due to the loss of their original hydrogen. Finding phosphine and ammonia in Venus’s atmosphere is unexpected and intriguing, as these gases are considered potential biomarkers even for exoplanets.
Challenges and Further Research
Subsequent studies had questioned the initial phosphine findings, suggesting the gas might be ordinary sulfur dioxide. However, new data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) rules out sulfur dioxide contamination and suggests the presence of phosphine is linked to the timing of observations.
“All our observations that detected phosphine were taken as Venus’s atmosphere moved from night into day, and all the observations that didn’t find phosphine were taken as the atmosphere moved from day into night.” This pattern suggests that phosphine is destroyed by ultraviolet light during the day.
Rakesh Mogul, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, reanalyzed data from NASA’s Pioneer Venus Large Probe, which entered Venus’s atmosphere in 1978. This data supported the presence of phosphine deep in Venus’s cloud layer.
The new findings from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and ALMA, alongside historical data, provide a more coherent picture of phosphine’s presence on Venus. However, the exact source of these gases remains unknown. Researchers continue to investigate, with the hope of unraveling the mysteries of Venus’s atmosphere.
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