论文标题
在金星云甲板中检测到的膦所需的生物量
On The Biomass Required To Produce Phosphine Detected In The Cloud Decks Of Venus
论文作者
论文摘要
在金星大气中以$ \ sim 20 $ ppb的含量检测膦表明，这种气体是由不确定的非生物途径或生物过程产生的。我们考虑后一种可能性，并探讨产生观察到的磷酸通量所需的生物量是否合理。我们估计，通过简单模型预测的典型生物量密度可能比低大气层中地球空中生物圈的生物量密度低的数量级。我们简要讨论小航天器如何可以品尝金星云甲板并搜索生物标志物。
The detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus at an abundance of $\sim 20$ ppb suggests that this gas is being generated by either indeterminate abiotic pathways or biological processes. We consider the latter possibility, and explore whether the amount of biomass required to produce the observed flux of phosphine may be reasonable. We estimate that the typical biomass densities predicted by our simple model are potentially orders of magnitude lower than the biomass density of Earth's aerial biosphere in the lower atmosphere. We briefly discuss how small spacecraft could sample the Venusian cloud decks and search for biomarkers.
