Scientists have discovered a small amount of phosphine in Venus's atmosphere. Since this compound can be produced by microorganisms, and there is no other mechanism entitled for the production of this amount of phosphine, scientists are speculating that microorganisms may exist on the planet Venus.

Phosphine is made up of one atom of phosphorus and three atoms of hydrogen. It is a toxic gas for larger organisms, but can be released by microorganisms. Phosphine can be found on Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. However, for other rocky planet like Venus, the production mechanism of this compound is very limited. By observing a selected millimeter wave from Venus's atmosphere using the JCMT telescope in Hawaii and ALMA telescope in Chile, scientists discovered a phosphine absorption line which implies the existence of phosphine in Venus's atmosphere.

The concentration of phosphine found on Venus this time is estimated at about 20 ppb, which means there are twenty phosphine molecules in every billion. Although the amount of molecules is so tiny, no other known mechanisms including sunlight, volcanoes, or lightning, are able to account for it. If there are no other unknown chemical reactions, the only remaining choice would be some living microorganisms. What do you think?

More information: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2015/