<story><title>Signs of Life discovered on Venus and atmosphere</title><url>https://twitter.com/brianroemmele/status/1304984620304232448</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tectonic</author><text>On the other hand, we may have instead found evidence of a new abiotic form of phosphine synthesis— I expect scientists will be working hard to propose non-biological processes that could explain these results. I also expect some new Venus probes real soon now.&lt;p&gt;This definitely could be the result of an unknown abiotic process. It also definitely could be evidence of life.&lt;p&gt;Some papers to check out:&lt;p&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arxiv.org&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;1910.05224&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arxiv.org&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;1910.05224&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.liebertpub.com&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1089&amp;#x2F;ast.2017.1783&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.liebertpub.com&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1089&amp;#x2F;ast.2017.1783&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;For 3 billion years, ending about 750 million years ago, Venus was likely hospitable, leaving the tantalizing possibility that we’ve detected the last vestiges of an ancient ecosystem.&lt;p&gt;Self-promotion: we&amp;#x27;ll cover this in-depth in Orbital Index (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;orbitalindex.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;orbitalindex.com&lt;/a&gt;) this week.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alpineidyll3</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s about eleven bajillion abiotic routes to phosphine. The authors of this paper are totally crazy-go-nuts riding the hype train. Phosphine can be made from elemental phosphorus by simple acid catalysis. The atmosphere of venus is highly acidic. Venus is so close to earth that space spectroscopy could find a bunch of actually complex molecules that would imply life, if they were there. Phosphine is literally the simplest compound of phosphorus, a common element.</text></comment>
<story><title>Signs of Life discovered on Venus and atmosphere</title><url>https://twitter.com/brianroemmele/status/1304984620304232448</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tectonic</author><text>On the other hand, we may have instead found evidence of a new abiotic form of phosphine synthesis— I expect scientists will be working hard to propose non-biological processes that could explain these results. I also expect some new Venus probes real soon now.&lt;p&gt;This definitely could be the result of an unknown abiotic process. It also definitely could be evidence of life.&lt;p&gt;Some papers to check out:&lt;p&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arxiv.org&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;1910.05224&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arxiv.org&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;1910.05224&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;- &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.liebertpub.com&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1089&amp;#x2F;ast.2017.1783&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.liebertpub.com&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1089&amp;#x2F;ast.2017.1783&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;For 3 billion years, ending about 750 million years ago, Venus was likely hospitable, leaving the tantalizing possibility that we’ve detected the last vestiges of an ancient ecosystem.&lt;p&gt;Self-promotion: we&amp;#x27;ll cover this in-depth in Orbital Index (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;orbitalindex.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;orbitalindex.com&lt;/a&gt;) this week.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>awb</author><text>From a quora post by the same author of the tweets:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Astronomers will think of all the ways to justify Phosphine without life and I welcome that. Please do, because we are at the end of our possibilities to show abiotic processes that can make Phosphine&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; there very well could be an abiotic source but that alone would be an amazing discovery. However we must deploy Occam’s Razor and suggest the simplest explanation and the evidence suggests the simple explanation is biological sources, life.&lt;p&gt;Wouldn&amp;#x27;t a better announcement be &amp;quot;Phosphine detected in Venus atmosphere&amp;quot;. Maybe it&amp;#x27;s compelling evidence for life, but claiming &amp;quot;Signs of Life Detected&amp;quot; seems a bit premature, no?&lt;p&gt;And from the link on the author&amp;#x27;s Twitter bio:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Over the long, winding arc of his career, Brian has built and run payments and tech businesses, worked in media, including the promotion of top musicians, and explored a variety of other subjects along the way.&lt;p&gt;Not exactly who I thought would be announcing the discovery of life beyond our planet.</text></comment>