2020/10/31 by M. A. Thompson · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Planetary Science and Exploration #Scientific Research and Discoveries #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slaa187
5 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by MNRAS
arxiv created 2020/11/17 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/20 · arxiv updated 2020/12/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In the light of the recent announcement of the discovery of the potential biosignature phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus I present an independent reanalysis of the original JCMT data to assess the statistical reliability of the detection. Two line detection methods are explored, low order polynomial fits and higher order multiple polynomial fits. A non-parametric bootstrap analysis reveals that neither line detection method is able to recover a statistically significant detection. Similar to the results of other reanalyses of ALMA Venus spectra, the polynomial fitting process results in false positive detections in the JCMT spectrum. There is thus no significant evidence for phosphine absorption in the JCMT Venus spectra.