Phosphine

This is the Morningstar Missions to Venus.

And this is the story of the Phosphine Bombshell.

Let's start with a molecule at the center of all of this drama.

Phosphine.

Chemical formula? PH3.

One phosphorus atom, three hydrogen atoms.

not hand-wavily, but quantitatively, showing that even the most generous assumptions about Venus' volcanic activity or surface chemistry fall orders of magnitude short of producing one part per billion of phosphine.

Their primary conclusion, which was also the title of their 2021 paper, says it all.