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>Given that Venus' atmosphere is a complex mixture held at very high temperature and pressure, the "sign" seems pretty weak here. The phosphine signal is comin
by cowboysauce 6y ago
>Given that Venus' atmosphere is a complex mixture held at very high temperature and pressure, the "sign" seems pretty weak here.
The phosphine signal is coming from a portion of Venus' atmosphere that has pressure and temperatures similar to that of the the Earth's surface, according the the Earth and Sky article.
- UncleOxidant 6y agoIs it possible that the phosphine is being generated in the high temperature, high pressure zone and drifting up into this temperate zone?
- cowboysauce 6y agoNot really. Phosphine is broken down by UV light so having it be concentrated higher in the atmosphere, where it's exposed to more UV light, would be difficult to explain via transport from a lower altitude source.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoNot if it gets produced and transported (slightly) faster than it's broken down.
- beowulfey 6y agoThis is a possibility but we’ll have to see what the paper makes of this, if anything. It may depend on knowing more about the motion of the atmosphere. It was also an unexpectedly large amount of phosphine apparently, more than would normally be stable at that altitude (so it’s definitely being renewed). But again, this is just a string of tweets—hard to say anything without the paper!
- BurningFrog 6y agoYeah, "wind" seems like it could explain much here.