Jim Bridenstine
Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jim Bridenstein commented on the discovery of mysterious traces of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus on his Twitter account.
The time has come to give Venus the highest priority, he said. “The discovery of phosphine, a byproduct of anaerobic biology, is the most important development in creating a compelling case for extraterrestrial life,” Bridenstein said.
Astronomers previously reported that mysterious traces of phosphine were found in the upper atmosphere of Venus. This compound is a waste product of living organisms, and scientists are not yet aware of other sources of poisonous gas. Phosphine was found using the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) radio telescope complex in Chile and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii.
