SOFIA Fails to Find Phosphine in the Atmosphere of Venus, But the Debate Continues

For now, the detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus appears to be off-again. There were no signs of phosphine in the data from the SOFIA telescope. If there is no phosphine in Venus's atmosphere, it's a maximum of about 0.8 parts per billion, much smaller than the initial estimate.

The team that made the initial detection of phosphine disagrees with the researchers.

The discovery of phosphine by the original team was completely unexpected. Initially, the phosphine was reported at 20 parts per billion, but that was later revised to 7 or fewer parts per billion after reanalysis. That amount was unexpected.

The data was open and available to everyone, and in a few weeks, three different studies using the data questioned the evidence of phosphine in Venus' atmosphere.

The initial detection was made by two Earth-based radio telescopes, one in Hawai'i and the other in northern Chile. The amount of phosphine, in addition to the fact that it was detected twice nearly two years apart, means that it must exist with some type of replenish source. The gas should have been destroyed before it accumulated.

In a recent interview with Planetary Radio, she said that her team had made a fourth detection of phosphine using the JCMT. She predicted the data from SOFIA.