An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the discovery of phosphine in the clouds of the planet Venus. A team of researchers led by astrophysicist Jane Greaves of the British University of Cardiff used the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii and the ALMA radio telescope to probe the Venusian atmosphere. The concentration of phosphine detected is about twenty parts per billion, which may seem little, but as far as we know only anaerobic bacteria can produce it in that amount. For this reason, phosphine is considered a biological signature in the study of the atmospheres of exoplanets even if at the moment it’s not possible to completely rule out an abiotic process that can produce phosphine in the conditions of Venus’s atmosphere.

An article published in “The Astronomical Journal” reports the results of a study of the TOI-421 system, where two exoplanets were discovered following observations conducted by NASA’s TESS space telescope. A team of researchers led by Ilaria Carleo of Wesleyan University used various telescopes to conduct follow-up observations that confirmed the existence of the Neptunian exoplanet detected by TESS also discovering a radial velocity signal that led to the identification of a sub-Neptunian planet. Both are close to their star so they’re heated and their atmosphere is very large with a low density. In particular, the outer exoplanet is of the type that was called super puffy or cotton candy planet, difficult to explain for current models of atmospheric evolution.