Icon: enlarge
Planet Venus: life or no life?
Photo: AP
It was
the
scientific news in September: Researchers had found traces of life on Venus, reported numerous media.
Astronomers at Cardiff University had previously discovered evidence of the molecule monophosphine in the planet's atmosphere.
The substance is a metabolic product of bacteria and was therefore taken as an indication of life.
Whether this could actually be found on Venus was questionable as early as September.
The researchers at Welsh Cardiff University had never put this up for discussion, simply speaking of an "abnormal and inexplicable chemistry" that they had detected.
So far, no mechanism is known in which monophosphine is formed on Venus.
This also made other researchers suspicious.
Now a group led by astronomer Ignas Snellen from the University of Leiden has re-analyzed the data from the Alma telescope, which was already used for the first Venus study, and posted the results online before publication in a specialist magazine.
"The aim of this work is to evaluate the statistical reliability through independent new analyzes," writes the team.
Result not valid?
Researchers came to the first conclusion that monophosphane is in the atmosphere of Venus by analyzing the frequencies of light waves captured by the Alma telescope.
In what is known as spectroscopy, astronomers draw conclusions about the chemical composition of atmospheres.
However, they have to evaluate the data statistically, which is possible based on various parameters.
The researchers at Cardiff University had chosen parameters that particularly emphasized the signal required for monophosphane.
Despite this approach, the deflection was only just enough to reliably distinguish it from the background noise.
In the recalculation with other parameters, the Dutch researchers discovered a signal in the data that could indicate monophosphine.
However, the rash is not statistically significant, according to the scientists.
You could also say the signal is too weak to be interpreted as evidence.
Debate about dealing with supposed traces of life
"We note that the published data do not provide statistical evidence for monophosphine in the atmosphere of Venus," the researchers conclude.
As with the original paper, your paper must now be examined by independent experts.
Only then will it be known which research group is right.
In addition, new measurements with the Alma telescope could help to validate the results.
Due to the corona pandemic, however, there are currently no measurements at the facility.
The excitement about the Venus sensation has recently sparked discussions among astronomers about how first indications of a situation should be communicated to the public.
Science thrives on research being made public so that it can be discussed in the professional community.
However, it can happen that they are over-interpreted outside the expert debates.
Icon: The mirror
jme