Life on Venus

Yesterday, an article by CNN was published sharing the details of study of possible life on Venus. The title of the article at the time read:

"A gas found on Earth that signifies life has been detected in the clouds on Venus"

Wow...life on Venus, right? Not so fast. This is a very misleading headline as it clearly states that life has been detected, but that is NOT what the researchers in the study said. The article states that phosphine was detected in the atmosphere of Venus. Phosphine can occur when bacteria or when organic material breaks down. This is a pretty cool discovery, but it doesn't tell us for sure that life was detected. There's a quote in the article from a coauthor of the study stating that something unexpected has happened. But that's different than jumping to the conclusion that life was detected.

A gas found on Earth that signifies life has been detected in the clouds on Venus

This just goes to show you that you have to click on an article and read it to get the full story. In this case, if you didn't click on the article, you'd walk away thinking life was detected. Something cool is happening on Venus, but is it life? Possible, but nowhere close to definite. Remember, ask questions and think critically.