A new study from Cornell University in the United States indicates that phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus is a sign of geological activity.
Last fall, scientists announced the discovery of a small amount of phosphine gas—a chemical compound made of phosphorus and hydrogen—in the atmosphere of Venus, raising the hypothesis that it could serve as a biological marker for life.
The Magellan spacecraft captured an image of the massive Maat Mons volcano on Venus in 1991. (Photo: NASA).
However, a new study from Cornell University has shown that phosphine originates from a non-biological source related to geological activity, revealing that volcanoes may still be erupting on the second planet in the solar system.
“Phosphine does not tell us about the biology of Venus but instead is a geological sign. Science is indicating that there are active volcanoes on Venus today or in the very recent past,” emphasized Jonathan Lunine, professor of physical sciences and chair of the astronomy department at Cornell University, in the report.
This conclusion was reached after Lunine and colleagues examined observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile.
The research team believes that Venus contains phosphides in the deep mantle of the planet. If these are brought to the surface due to volcanic activity and then released into the atmosphere, they would react with sulfuric acid to form phosphine.
Lunine noted that their phosphine model indicates that eruptions are still occurring on Venus. Radar imaging data from the Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s also revealed geological features supporting this hypothesis.
In 1978, during NASA’s Pioneer Venus orbital mission, scientists discovered variations of sulfur dioxide in the upper atmosphere of Venus, suggesting the possibility of active volcanism, similar to what occurred during the eruption of Krakatoa on Earth in Indonesia in 1883.
The details of the research were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 12.
