It being a long hot summer, the surprising news might have escaped your attention. There appear to be traces of molecules in the atmosphere of Venus, molecules that should not be there. Before any of us get too excited, we should realize that this could be the result of odd photochemical reactions we don't understand. That said, one real possibility is that these molecules, called phosphines, could be traces or echoes of life, at least at the cellular level. Odd to say, these phosphines seem to be riding currents some thirty miles above the surface of Venus, a surface that is about as inhospitable as you can imagine apart from the very real vacuum of space itself. One article I read (I didn't copy the link) suggested that these phosphine molecules could be the last remnants of a biosphere that once thrived a billion years ago. That's possible, as Venus isn't so different from earth, except for all the ways it is different. The pressure at the surface is like that found at ocean depths of 900m, and the surface temperature is about 740K, or about 860 degrees American. Why is it so hot you ask? The pressure for one thing, but mostly because the atmosphere is 98% carbon dioxide. So, I don't know if Venus has an atmospheric biosphere, or if we've detected the molecular echoes of life long extinct, or if it's simply a chemical anomaly. I do know that I have an interest in heat, pressure, and CO2.
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