Mysteries Department
Sign inRequest access
0

Is there a real absorption line at 266.94 GHz in the Venus spectra?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·3 answers·0·0 following
Three answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.

Where it stands

Three answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Three are still possible. Of the one narrower question under it, none is answered yet.

Why it matters

Everything else depends on it. The line is a few parts in ten thousand of a very bright continuum, and its significance changes with how the instrumental baseline is removed⁠[1]⁠[2]⁠[3]. This is a methodological question that public data and open code can answer.

Answers 3

Evidence: 4 for, 4 against
Disputed
None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible
Evidence: 2 for, 1 against
Disputed

History

  1. Greaves et al. puts forward: a real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  2. Snellen et al. puts forward: the feature is an artefact of baseline fitting and calibration, not a property of Venus.
  3. Snellen et al.: the 12th-order polynomial used on the ALMA data creates five other features above 10 sigma nearby; an…Against: A real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  4. Thompson: bootstrap tests of the JCMT data with several baseline methods recover no significant line.Against: A real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  5. Snellen et al.: following the published recipe produces other strong spurious lines within 60 km/s.For: The feature is an artefact of baseline fitting and calibration, not a property of Venus.
  6. Thompson: polynomial fitting of the JCMT spectrum produces false positives.For: The feature is an artefact of baseline fitting and calibration, not a property of Venus.
  7. Akins et al.: interferometric filtering of the bright disk complicates the detection of a broad, weak line.Against: A real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  8. Greaves et al.: the team reports the line at about 5 sigma in ALMA data reprocessed with the revised calibration.For: A real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  9. Greaves et al.: the team reports the feature in data reduced with revised calibration and in new JCMT data.Against: The feature is an artefact of baseline fitting and calibration, not a property of Venus.
  10. Greaves et al.: after removing sulphur dioxide contamination, both spectra show 6–8 sigma absorption of similar depth.For: A real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  11. Clements: phosphine and HDO lines are recovered in the first JCMT-Venus campaign with Fourier ripple removal.For: A real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  12. Tang et al.: jCMT-Venus announces a re-detection of phosphine.For: A real absorption feature from Venus's atmosphere is present in both the JCMT and ALMA data.
  13. Asked on this site
Add evidence
1What it bears on2What you found3Where it comes from
Which answer?
Does it count for or against it?
In a sentence, what did you find?
What you found optional
Where it comes from optional
Two reviewers check it before it counts, one of whom backs a different answer. You'll hear back by email: accepted, needs changes, or a duplicate.
Propose an answer
Your answer, in a sentence
What would rule it out? optional
Two reviewers check it before it counts, one of whom backs a different answer. You'll hear back by email: accepted, needs changes, or a duplicate.
Ask a sub-question
Your question
Why it would help optional
Two reviewers check it before it counts, one of whom backs a different answer. You'll hear back by email: accepted, needs changes, or a duplicate.
Add a source
The source
What it shows about this question optional
Two reviewers check it before it counts, one of whom backs a different answer. You'll hear back by email: accepted, needs changes, or a duplicate.

Discussion 0

Add to the discussion