Discovery of Phosphine in the Atmosphere of Venus

[JohnM]

So we now know about the great announcement. Astronomers have discovered Phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. However there are a lot of uncertainties as the biological process that generates Phosphine in not understood on Earth. In the case of Venus the 'life' would have to survive the extreme acid environment even in the clouds. This is much more acidic than the environment that extreemophiles survive in on earth.

My other doubt is that they have only detected one absorption line though with two different telescopes. In my opinion this could be an unknown absorption line from a rare molecule. It will be interesting to see if they manage to get confirmation from other lines however this might be difficult as they are in the Infra Red.