Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2020

13 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2020 ASTROCHEMISTRY a potential biological origin. The study of non-biological phosphine sources will un- doubtedly come to be a new research focus. Despite our great hope of finding extrater- restrial life, the scientific community is al- ways ready to apply Occam’s Razor to any such claim. Scientific skepticism at extrater- restrial claims might always be treated as if an alternative explanation is the more likely one. As Sagan said, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Of all of the statements made about the phosphine discovery and analysis, perhaps the most complicated one was published by the Organising Committee of Commis- sion F3 of the International Astronomical Union itself, which seems to admonish the authors for even pushing the biological ori- gin hypothesis. From the statement: “the Commission is concerned with the way the potential detection of phosphine has been covered for the broad audience. It is an ethical duty for any scientist to communi- cate with the media and the public with great scientific rigor and to be careful not to overstate any interpretation which will be irretrievably picked up by the press and generate great public attention in the case of life beyond Earth.” The interpretation of the statement among several members of the astronomy community has been varied, but Oxford Professor and BBC The Sky at Night host Dr. Chris Lintott has summed up the thoughts of many, describing the state- ment as a “grumpy response of a bunch of senior people not involved in work that got public attention.” With the IAU execu- tive presently calling for the F3 statement retraction, there has officially been a con- troversy over the possible detection of bi- ological processes on Venus, a controversy over the F3 response to the controversy, and now any future IAU controversies over the F3 controversy over the response to the controversy. Social media astrophiles are free to sit back and watch how the profes- sionals do it. As will be true for ex- oplanets, it is possible that a strong marker of Venusian biology is already visible to us, but we do not yet rec- ognize it as a marker - either food, waste, ox- idant, or whatever life does as part of its exis- tence. The phosphine discovery bridges one possible gap and, if life always happens to find a similar way in the universe, its detec- tion could be the be- ginning of our new chapter in the biology of the universe. Until then, there remain a great many studies. ! A speculative vision of possible Venusian life as described in the classic in- troductory book National Geo- graphic Picture Atlas of Our Uni- verse. [Nat.Geo.]