TANTALISING HINTS OF LIFE FOUND ON VENUS

The world was shocked in September when an international team of astronomers announced that they’d detected phosphine in the clouds of tenus. It’s thought that the trace amounts of phosphine in carth’s atmosphere are created by microbes. Lightning and volcanic eruptions can also produce phosphine, but not in the ”uantities found on tenus. The prospect of finding what could be a by-product of life on tenus was shocking, because the planet is a hellscape. It’s wrapped in thick clouds of carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid, which trap the Sun’s heat and drive its temperature up to 4U1°C. Another paper was rushed out in October suggesting that the phosphine discovery was a mistake. This paper was still under review at the time of writing, so the debate rages on.