Astronomers have found a possible sign of life in the upper atmosphere of the planet Venus, Earth’s nearest neighbour.
Using two powerful telescopes an international team has detected traces of phosphine — a molecule thought to indicate biological activity — in the relatively cool cloud systems about 60km above the planet’s hot surface.
Some astrobiologists have speculated for decades that Venus’s clouds might contain aerial microbes but the idea has received less attention than the search for life elsewhere in the solar system, particularly on Mars or on moons of Jupiter and Saturn that contain oceans beneath their icy surfaces. The team of UK, US and Japanese astronomers published the phosphine discovery in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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