Phosphine data that inhibited Venus’ capable life also stimulated music composition

Clara Sousa-Silva spent years learning how to find phosphine on different planets. In September, she was part of the research team that discovered phosphine in the Venus atmosphere. But her phosphine research inspired writer David Ibbett, who turned the celestial data into musical compositions.

“When I first started studying phosphine, it was notorious for being terrifying on Earth,” says Sousa-Silva. Phosphine was used as a fumigant or as a chemical warfare agent, but that was not why Sousa-Silva was interested in it. She turned her attention to phosphine on planets other than Earth. “Phosphine is very difficult to make,” she explained, “but on planets like Jupiter and Saturn you can reach the temperature and hydrogen pressure to make phosphine without fun.”

However, the detection of phosphine was not easy, so Sousa-Silva awarded her PhD in confirming the detection of phosphine spectrum fingers. Consider the 16.8 billion astronomical properties for phosphine – these were the patterns you would expect to see in your data if phosphine were around. “They are a representation of how the molecule vibrates,” she said.

But while phosphine can be created in a laboratory or in real conditions around Jupiter and Saturn, there is another way to create phosphine.

Early life on Earth was not based on oxygen, but was largely anaerobic organisms.

“This anaerobic life is still on Earth,” says Sousa-Silva. “It’s always in the shadows: at the bottom of lochs, in bogs, in bogs, and in the gut and in water of almost every animal – including ourselves.”

Crucially, wherever you find anaerobic life on Earth, you will find phosphine. In fact, Sousa-Silva research suggested that any a rocky planet containing phosphorus amounts that could only be measured through biological processes.

So when astronomer Jane Greaves discovered one of the celestial properties of phosphine in the Venus atmosphere, she turned to Sousa-Silva to find out what it might mean. They were looking for other reasons that could explain the presence of phosphine, but could not find anything, so last September that news broke. probably was a able sign of life on Venus.

Sousa-Silva is the first to admit that there is still a lot of uncertainty about the discovery. “I may have missed something,” she says. “It may be another molecule that looks like the signal, or it may not be true. ”The hunt is now underway to find one of the other 16.8 billion signature properties of phosphine.

Meanwhile, on Earth, writer David Ibbett was using phosphine spectrum data for a very different purpose.

“I’ve been interested in sonification for a while,” he says. Sonification is the process of converting data into sound. He became interested in the kind of work Sousa-Silva was doing and used her celestial names phosphine as building blocks for musical compositions.

“The first thing I did was take that data and come up with musical strings by taking the ratios between the spectral features and turning these into harmony. ”He appears on the piano. “This extended feature is in the longer wavelengths, which acts as a browser sound type.” Ibbett plays low chord on the piano. “And then there are three special peaks, which are shorter waves,” he said, playing three pounds higher. “First, I used that to create this piece of air called ‘Earth Has Been Many Planets’.” This piece represents the Earth’s atmosphere over time, as it moved from phosphine life to oxygen-based life control.

But this week, Ibbett’s newer composition based on Sousa-Silva’s phosphine work will appear at the Another space festival, where cellist Minjin Chung performs “Phosphine: Anaerobic Life”. This new piece is inspired by the concept of thriving life in a phosphine-rich environment.

Sousa-Silva has already heard a preview of the work, and was struck by the extent to which it recalled some of the molecular properties of phosphine. She explains that if you look closely at a molecular spectral pattern like phosphine, you can see a substructure within the bands, called a rovibrational structure. These patterns are caused by the movements of the phosphine atoms within the molecule.

“And although I hadn’t explained this to David, I felt in the music because those awful sounds are within the common tones that feel very similar to the rovibrational substructures. ”

Ibbett’s writings offer a new interpretation of scientific data that a work like Sousa-Silva may feel a little more like an outsider. But even Sousa-Silva looked at her research in a new way after hearing the pieces of music. She usually works alone and her work can be very abstract. However, she said, “I didn’t realize how good it is when you have other ways to experience your work. “

The Another space festival, including a talk by Sousa-Silva and Minjin Chung’s presentation of “Phosphine: Anaerobic Life” on Saturday 20 March.