Earth’s sister planet, Venus, has not been regarded as a high priority in the search for life. Its surface temperature of around 450°C is thought to be hostile to even the hardiest of micro-organisms, and its thick, sulphurous and acidic atmosphere has kept the surface almost completely free from visiting spacecraft.We have only had the briefest of glimpses of a barren landscape from the two Russian landers that made it down to the ground back in the 1980s. So it’s no wonder that a report published in Nature Astronomy that the upper levels of Venus’ atmosphere contain a molecule that is a potential signature of life, comes as something of a shock.The molecule in question is PH3 (phosphine). It is a highly reactive and flammable, extremely smelly toxic gas, found (among other places) in heaps of penguin dung and the bowels of badgers and fish.
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