Signs of phosphine were detected in the atmosphere of Venus, alluding to signs of life on the hottest planet in our solar system.
On Earth, phosphine is generally produced by microorganisms that live in a low oxygen environment. In 2020, phosphine was discovered in the clouds on Venus.
But recently, scientists have discovered phosphine deeper in the atmosphere than they previously thought.
Planetary scientist, Paul Byrne, shared his perspective about the current conversation over the discovery and how these phosphine levels could change scientists’ understanding of Venus.
"If we are serious about understanding how life arose and how it came to be say on our own world, we're going to have to understand the rules that govern how large rocky worlds become habitable in the first place," Byrne said. "And guess what, there's only one other large rocky world anywhere near us and its Venus."
Plus, a new era of moon exploration has started. India landed its first probe at the south pole of the moon. And for the first time in more than a half century, NASA is sending people back to the lunar surface with its upcoming Artemis missions.
Barbara Cohen, a planetary scientist at NASA, explained why these moon missions are so important for planetary research.
"We have been hungering for access to the lunar surface for 50 years," Cohen said. "The last time that the U.S. had a landed, soft-landing access to the moon was in 1972, which is the last time we sent humans to the moon...so touching the surface of the planet is just one of the things that we have so many questions that we can answer. And we haven't been able to do that for the moon for my whole professional career."
