The world itself is enigmatic full of mysterious things. Earth, where we live, is considered to be only the host life. There is always a common question that whether life exists beyond the Earth. The discovery of a strange gas on the atmosphere puts the planet “into the palatinate of a perhaps inhabited world,” a researcher says.
Phosphine is a toxic, fetid gas that is extremely poisonous and has been used in chemical weapons. The molecule is composed of one phosphorous atom and three hydrogen atoms and is shaped like a pyramid with the phosphorus on top is generally scarce in nature. It is said that to produce a phosphine molecule an unusual force or mechanism is required. For example, Phosphine has been detected in the atmosphere of two gas giants of the Solar System i.e. Jupiter and Saturn, where gravity creates extreme environments.
Scientists have detected Phosphine gas in Venus’s atmosphere that, on Earth a variety of microbes that thrive in low-oxygen environments produce phosphine. And those organisms would only need to pump out 10% of the phosphine they do here to explain the levels seen on Venus.
Microbial life on Venus is expected to be very different from that on Earth, however, as it would need to survive in the hyper-acidic conditions of the planet’s clouds- mostly made up of sulfuric acid. Basically, On Earth Phosphine gas is produced by Bacteria after absorbing phosphate minerals and adding hydrogen to it. This process is strange, as it costs the bacteria energy rather than gives it to them – so the evolutionary purpose for this process is not clear.
Some scientists believe that phosphine is just the waste product of another process, while others believe it could have an alternative purpose – such as warding off rivals. Sousa- Silva said, “On Venus, there are no mechanisms we know of that can spontaneously make phosphine because it is so hard to produce.”
The scientist involved in this new detection was not enough to state or clarify that it is made up of biological sources. Any claim of detection of life beyond earth carries with it a heavy burden of proof. Before people start screaming, I need to stress that the discovery of phosphine molecules in Venus’s atmosphere doesn’t mean that scientists have found proof that there is life. The detection of phosphine could be produced by some form of life or some chemical process that scientists just haven’t seen before.
If this discovery is confirmed by the scientist with the evidence that we would know that the solar system has two planets where life exists in human history.
