Astronomers were astonished to find an abundance of phosphine, a molecule produced by microbes on Earth, in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf, an unusual type of object that lives in the grey zone between a giant planet and a tiny star.
As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Science, astronomers said they had found “undepleted phosphine,” a molecule made up of three hydrogen atoms and one phosphorus atom, in the atmosphere of Wolf 1130C, a brown dwarf 54 light-years from Earth.
The team, led by San Francisco State University astrophysicist Eileen Gonzales, analyzed data obtained by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and found that phosphine at a concentration of 100 parts per billion, far higher than previous observations of other brown dwarfs, as the New York Times reports.
On Earth, phosphine is a byproduct of decaying organic matter and one of six key elements necessary for life. It’s extremely rare beyond our planet, making it a promising target in our search for extraterrestrial life.
The molecule made headlines in 2020, in fact, when a team of researchers announced they had discovered a significant source of the stuff in the clouds above Venus, which triggered a years-long scientific debate about the possibility of life in the planet’s atmosphere.
As such, the latest findings surprised researchers.
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