Life on Venus? Intriguing molecule phosphine spotted in planet's clouds again

[Admin]

More evidence of the potentially life-indicating molecule phosphine has been discovered in Venus' atmosphere, opening the next chapter in a heated debate.

Life on Venus? Intriguing molecule phosphine spotted in planet's clouds again : Read more

 

[Terry Moseley]

Very interesting! Venus's atmosphere is so dense that it would take large sized and cohesive asteroidal bodies to penetrate to the surface with sufficient energy to blast surface rocks high up into the Venusian atmosphere. That may have happened in the distant past when such large collisions were more frequent, but is not so likely to have happened recently. So if that was the source of the phosphine, it would need to have a very long lifetime in the Venusian atmosphere. I'm no chemist, so I can't comment on that. Of course, asteroidal bodies have a greater velocity at the distance of Venus from the Sun, than at Earth's distance, but conversely there are fewer of them, and as already noted, the thick atmosphere is another contra-factor.