“We’re a long way from saying this, but if there is life on Venus producing phosphine, we have no idea why it’s producing it. So finding them in the atmosphere of Venus is interesting on that basis as well. But further analysis of that data by Clements’ team revealed weak traces of the molecule, reinforcing the theory. “To date, our analyses remain unchallenged in the literature,” said Mogul, who was not involved in the research of Clements’ team. While detecting phosphine and ammonia in Venus’ clouds is exciting, it is just the beginning of a longer journey to unravel the mysteries of that planet’s atmosphere, he said.

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Persons: James, Maxwell, “ There’s, ”, Dave Clements, “, we’ve, Clements, ” Clements, Venus, Clements ’, Rakesh Mogul, Jane Greaves, NASA's, ” Greaves, Greaves, Javier Martin, Torres, Martín, Kate Pattle, ” Pattle, Pattle Organizations: CNN, Astronomical Society, Imperial College London, NASA, JPL, Caltech, Saturn, Venus, Telescope, California State Polytechnic University, ” Mogul, Cardiff University, Green Bank, Royal Astronomical Society, European Space Agency, University of Aberdeen, University College London Locations: Hull, England, Hawaii, SOFIA, ALMA, Pomona, United Kingdom, West Virginia