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"There are small and variable amounts of phosphine in Earth’s atmosphere, and its origins have been the subject of much argument." They mention this in their p
by aaron695 6y ago
"There are small and variable amounts of phosphine in Earth’s atmosphere, and its origins have been the subject of much argument."
They mention this in their press release video. We only think phosphine on earth is from life.
I think step one would be to find the life on earth that creates phosphine.
- detritus 6y agoFrom another HN thread last week: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp#Natural_explanations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp#Natural_exp... ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24493306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24493306 )
- aaron695 6y agoCryptozoology aside, we don't know that phosphine would have come from life. We need to reproduce the current experiments that have suggested it's life and more importantly track down the organism, now it's become a big deal.
- parksy 6y agoI think this is the exciting thing, even if it turns out to be some abiotic process on Venus, there's will need to be new studies leading to improved understanding of planet-scale chemistry, in addition to new studies of life here on Earth. All of which will help refine the search for potential biosignatures on other planets.
- anadem 6y agoIn the video linked by dghughes [0] above Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff outlines the mechanism by which life produces phosphine: bacterial breakdown of plant DNA. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24543575 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24543575