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.

The phosphine was identified in the cold atmosphere of a brown dwarf called Wolf 1130C, which exists in a triple system along with a low-mass red dwarf star and a white dwarf. The phosphine exists with an abundance of 0.1 parts per million, which matches what models of the

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