‘Swamp Gas’ Phosphine Could Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life

Clara Sousa-Silva looks for biosignatures that might prove beacons of extraterrestrial life (via Melanie Gonick/MIT)

One planet’s toxic gas is another’s life-sustaining biomarker.

Phosphine—a molecule known for its putrid, toxic nature on Earth—may be a sign of extraterrestrial life on distant worlds.

Produced only by oxygen-averse anaerobic organisms, the compound serves as a sign of life—”at least of a certain kind,” according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In a paper published by the journal Astrobiology, MIT researchers suggest that if phosphine were produced in abundant quantities (similar to methane on Earth), it would generate a signature pattern of light in a planet’s atmosphere.

The display, they claim, would be clear enough to spot from as far as 16 light years away—assuming you’re using a powerful tool like the planned James Webb Space Telescope.

“Here on Earth, oxygen is a really impressive sign of life,” lead author and research scientist Clara Sousa-Silva explained. “But other things besides life make oxygen, too.

“It’s important to consider stranger molecules that might not be made as often, but if you do find them on another planet, there’s only one explanation,” she added.

If phosphine is detected from a rocky planet, the team said, it would be an “unmistakable” sign of extraterrestrial life.

Sousa-Silva & Co. have amassed more than 16,000 candidates for potential biosignatures, the majority of which have not been fully characterized, and would offer little insight to scientists who spot them in an exoplanet’s atmosphere.

Researchers can now be confident, though, in the interpretation of at least one molecule: phosphine.

Discovered in the 1970s amidst the atmospheres of hot gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, the compound was likely “violently dredged up by huge, planet-sized convection storms,” as Sousa-Silva describes it.

Still, nearly five decades later, little is known about phosphine.

Aside from the fact that it exists in the absence of oxygen: swamps, marshlands, lake sediments, “and the farts and intestines of everything,” the study author said.

“Suddenly this all made sense,” she continued. “It’s a really toxic molecule for anything that likes oxygen. But for life that doesn’t like oxygen, it seems to be a very useful molecule.”

More on Geek.com:

• NASA Planet-Hunting Probe Joins Search for Intelligent Aliens
• Bizzare Interstellar Object ‘Oumuamua is Not an Alien Spacecraft
• Eerie ‘Bathtub Rings’ Around Titan’s Lakes Might Contain ‘Alien’ Crystals

from Geek.com https://ift.tt/2Q7RZug
via IFTTT