Well, that’s what Ethan Siegel says at Forbes at Forbes, anyway:
The discovery raised the exciting possibility that Venus’s clouds are home to life, and that those biological life forms are producing this phosphine. Indeed, photochemical processes from the Sun’s radiation, chemical processes from thermodynamic atmospheric effects, and geochemical processes from surface chemistry reactions were all deemed insufficient for producing these levels of phosphine.
So, is it life? Maybe. But that’s assuming phosphine is actually present, and a new study has just been submitted that calls the entire detection into doubt. Here’s what it means, and why the evidence that Venus might be anything other than a completely dead, hellish planet might have just evaporated entirely.
Ethan Siegel, “Venus Is Dead! New Analysis Shows Phosphine, A Possible Biosignature, Is Absent” at Forbes
Paper. (open access)
Well, there’s always Mars.
See also: Claim: Possible hints of life on Venus