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PHOSPHINE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A colorless gas with a strong fishy smell; used as a pesticide
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("phosphine" is a kind of...):
gas (a fluid in the gaseous state having neither independent shape nor volume and being able to expand indefinitely)
pesticide (a chemical used to kill pests (as rodents or insects))
Context examples:
Researchers have found that phosphine could be a pure biosignature and a sign of life where life forms don't require oxygen to thrive.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The team has amassed more than 16,000 candidates, including phosphine.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The team found that phosphine cannot be produced in any other way except by these extreme, oxygen-averse organisms, making phosphine a pure biosignature—a sign of life (at least of a certain kind).
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
But with Sousa-Silva's new paper, scientists can be confident in the interpretation of at least one molecule: phosphine.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Now MIT researchers have found that phosphine is produced by another, less abundant life form: anaerobic organisms, such as bacteria and microbes, that don't require oxygen to thrive.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
They found that if phosphine were produced at relatively small amounts equivalent to the amount of methane produced on Earth today, it would produce a signal in the atmosphere that would be clear enough to be detected by an advanced observatory such as the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, if that planet were within 5 parsecs, or about 16 light years from Earth—a sphere of space that covers a multitude of stars, likely hosting rocky planets.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Phosphine is among the stinkiest, most toxic gases on Earth, found in some of the foulest of places, including penguin dung heaps, the depths of swamps and bogs, and even in the bowels of some badgers and fish.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
