The search for life on Venus just took another turn, thanks to JWST's brown dwarf discovery

Researchers have found Neptune-like bands of clouds circling the surface of a brown dwarf, an object in between the size of a planet and a star.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered phosphine in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf — the same chemical that stoked controversy following claims that it had been detected on Venus and could be coming from life.

This new detection on a brown dwarf is predicted by models that simulate alien atmospheres and is a reminder that phosphine is not necessarily a biosignature. However, astronomers remain puzzled about why some objects contain phosphine and others do not, even though theory says it should be there.