Sound familiar?
It wasn't long ago when scientists found definitive proof of life on Mars. Turned out that it was natural weathering but hey...
Now we are being told that the compound phosphine was definitely found in the clouds of Venus and that the only way it could get there is from some form of life producing it.
I am not sure why we are so obsessed with trying to find life on other planets.
Anyway, turns out it is not a DEFINITE thing, the phosphine. So we are spending a bajillion dollars to send not one but TWO probes to Venus to check out that possibility.
The thing is? Even if they do find phosphine, I am willing to gamble that the crazy hot, acidic, chemical factory of an atmosphere covering Venus has some natural way of producing all kinds of crazy chemicals that could be used by life. Doesn't mean there IS life. And frankly whatever life we might find on Venus (if at all) would unlikely be something recognizable (at least not immediately) by human instrumentation since it would have evolved independently and in a completely different environment, even accounting for variation over billions of years.
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