Unknown space pioneer1/2/2023 "I think many people are now revisiting the notion of Venus as a fully oxidizing environment." (A "fully oxidizing environment" wouldn't include phosphine or most other chemicals seen as signs of life.) "I believe that evidence for in the legacy data were sort of discounted because it was thought that they could not exist in the atmosphere," Mogul said. Voyager to Mars Rover: NASA's 10 greatest innovations Here's what NASA's Opportunity rover saw before 'lights out' 10 interesting places in the solar system we'd like to visit But Pioneer 13's sample did have evidence of some molecule present in the gas that had the same mass as phosphine - in amounts that match the levels described in the Nature Astronomy paper. LNMS wasn't built to hunt phosphine-like compounds, and would have had a hard time distinguishing the gas from other molecules that have similar masses. The scientists also found definitive evidence for atoms of phosphorus in the atmosphere, which likely came from a heavier gas such as phosphine. When Mogul's team reexamined the LNMS data from Venus' lower and middle clouds (a potential habitable zone on the planet), they found signals that look a great deal like phosphine, the researchers wrote. When scientists first described the LNMS results in the 1970s, they didn't discuss phosphorus-based compounds like phosphine, focusing instead on other chemicals. (Three smaller probes also dropped from Pioneer 13 without parachutes.) The LNMS sampled the atmosphere and ran those samples through mass spectrometry, a standard lab technique used to identify unknown chemicals. Pioneer 13 dropped a large probe (the LNMS) into Venus' clouds suspended from a parachute, the probe collected data and beamed it back to Earth as it plummeted toward its robotic death. An image shows how Pioneer 13's large probe, which carried the LNMS, might have looked as it plunged through Venus's clouds.
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