Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2020

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2020 ASTROCHEMISTRY 5 ig questions – the sian phosphine A n international team from the UK, USA, and Japan, led by Prof. Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, re- leased their open access article “Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus” in Nature Astronomy as the press briefing was tak- ing place. The cautious excitement of Greaves, Dr. Anita Richards (Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics), and Dr. William Bains and Prof. Sara Seager (MIT) over bringing such a potentially groundbreak- ing and multi-disciplinary discovery to fruition was obvious to all in attendance. No topic in science generates more specu- lation than extraterrestrial life, and the discoverers will go down in history for that achievement − this would clearly be a milestone as the names “Gagarin” and “Armstrong/Aldrin/Collins” conjure. One assumes the most benevolent intentions of such a briefing, especially with the pre- senters stating that their work is of a mo- A n artist’s vi- sion of elec- trical discharges in the hot sky of Venus. Lightning and volcanism could be the ori- gin of the re- cently discovered phosphine in the planet’s atmos- phere. [J. Peter]