Dr. Anita M S Richards

We cannot explain the detection of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus (Greaves et al., 2020 Nature Astronomy) with any known chemistry or volcanic activity. We do know that it must be replaced continuously as phosphine is destroyed by the highly oxidising atmosphere of Venus, and that phosphine is produced by some microbes on Earth. The potential survival of life in the extraordinarily acidic atmosphere of Venus can't be explained yet either, but it is one of the possibities being considered. This talk will introduce some relevant aspects of the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array, and its role in the discovery of phosphine. The closest star after the Sun is Proxima Centauri, and ALMA has contributed to characterising its planetary system (Anglada et al.), which I will cover also.