Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor in Physics Ingo Mueller-Wodarg

Faculty of Natural Sciences

Faculty Senior Tutor, Faculty of Natural Sciences
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7674i.mueller-wodarg Website

 
 
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Location

 

6M57Huxley BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Greaves:2020:10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4,
author = {Greaves, J and Richards, A and Bains, W and Rimmer, P and Sagawa, H and Clements, D and Seager, S and Petkowski, J and Sousa-Silva, C and Ranjan, S and Drabek-Maunder, E and Fraser, H and Cartwright, A and Muller-Wodarg, I and Zhan, Z and Friberg, P and Coulson, I and Lee, E and Hoge, J},
doi = {10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4},
journal = {Nature Astronomy},
pages = {655--664},
title = {Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4},
volume = {5},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Measurements of trace gases in planetary atmospheres help us explore chemical conditions different to those on Earth. Our nearest neighbour, Venus, has cloud decks that are temperate but hyperacidic. Here we report the apparent presence of phosphine (PH3) gas in Venus’s atmosphere, where any phosphorus should be in oxidized forms. Single-line millimetre-waveband spectral detections (quality up to ~15σ) from the JCMT and ALMA telescopes have no other plausible identification. Atmospheric PH3 at ~20 ppb abundance is inferred. The presence of PH3 is unexplained after exhaustive study of steady-state chemistry and photochemical pathways, with no currently known abiotic production routes in Venus’s atmosphere, clouds, surface and subsurface, or from lightning, volcanic or meteoritic delivery. PH3 could originate from unknown photochemistry or geochemistry, or, by analogy with biological production of PH3 on Earth, from the presence of life. Other PH3 spectral features should be sought, while in situ cloud and surface sampling could examine sources of this gas.
AU  - Greaves,J
AU  - Richards,A
AU  - Bains,W
AU  - Rimmer,P
AU  - Sagawa,H
AU  - Clements,D
AU  - Seager,S
AU  - Petkowski,J
AU  - Sousa-Silva,C
AU  - Ranjan,S
AU  - Drabek-Maunder,E
AU  - Fraser,H
AU  - Cartwright,A
AU  - Muller-Wodarg,I
AU  - Zhan,Z
AU  - Friberg,P
AU  - Coulson,I
AU  - Lee,E
AU  - Hoge,J
DO  - 10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4
EP  - 664
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2397-3366
SP  - 655
TI  - Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus
T2  - Nature Astronomy
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1174-4
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/82482
VL  - 5
ER  -
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