News > Is there life floating in the clouds of Venus?

Is there life floating in the clouds of Venus?

14/09/2020 11:54 PM | Click to read full article

It's an extraordinary possibility - the idea that living organisms are floating in the clouds of planet Venus. But this is what astronomers are now considering after detecting a gas in the atmosphere they can't explain.

That gas is phosphine - a molecule made up of one phosphorus atom and three hydrogen atoms. Phosphine is associated with life, with microbes living in the guts of animals like penguins, or in oxygen-poor environments such as swamps.

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