The title is a typo. "Phosphorous" is an adjective. The correct noun is "phosphorus." The linked article uses it correctly, so only OP screwed up here.
The title of the post (on Hackernews, above) has the spelling "Phosphorous" (with a U). This is the spelling of the Adjective (a describing word). It is a mistake in this context, because what has been discovered in the outskirts of the Milky Way is not a grammatical construct but rather a chemical element.
The chemical element is spelled without the U (even in British English!): Phosphorus.
This is huge and potentially encouraging news for (biological) extraterrestrial life. Because P is so rare, the chemical options for complex organisms are very limited in vast stretches of space. Now that we observed it in the outer reaches, it doesn't seem as implausible that life could arise there.
It'll be interesting to find out how it ended up so far out there. Maybe those clouds are sometimes more stable than we thought?
24 comments
[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 25.3 ms ] threadAnd still yet, the article's diagram's caption does not use the correct word!! "Currently known Galactic distribution of phosphorous."
The chemical element is spelled without the U (even in British English!): Phosphorus.
https://grammarist.com/spelling/phosphorous-phosphorus/
The noun also has that U, it's the O next to it that it doesn't have.
It'll be interesting to find out how it ended up so far out there. Maybe those clouds are sometimes more stable than we thought?