Possibility of life on Venus: Remote hope with need for ample caution

A team of astronomers led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University discovered that the planet has a high concentration of phosphine gas (Ph3)

Is there life on Venus? For many years, there was hope. Venus is a rocky planet. It is Earthlike in size and gravity. It has a thick atmosphere. However, those hopes were dashed in the 1970s when probes discovered its average surface temperature was more than 450 degrees Celsius and that its atmosphere was about 95 per cent carbon dioxide.
 

However, a paper released this week – “Phosphine Gas in the cloud decks of Venus” in the journal Nature Astronomy – has reignited the debate. A team of astronomers led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University discovered that the planet