In September, a team of scientists reported finding phosphine in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Phosphine can be a biomarker and is here on Earth. But it’s also present on Jupiter, where it’s produced abiotically. The discovery led to conjecture about what kind of life might survive in Venus’ atmosphere, continually producing the easily-degraded phosphine.
The authors of that study were circumspect about their own results, saying that they hope someone can determine a source for the phosphine, other than life.
Now a new study says that the original phosphine detection is not statistically significant.
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