Venus clouds 'might harbour life'
By Martin Redfern

There could be life on the planet Venus, US scientists have concluded in a
report in the journal Astrobiology.
The existence of life on the planet's oven-hot surface is unimaginable.

But microbes could survive and reproduce, experts say, floating in the
thick, cloudy atmosphere, protected by a sunscreen of sulphur compounds.

Scientists have even submitted a proposal for a Nasa space mission to sample
the clouds and attempt to return any presumed Venusians to Earth.

"Venus is really a hellish place," said Professor Andrew Ingersoll, of the
California Institute of Technology.
"If you could get through the sulphuric acid clouds down to the surface of
Venus you'd find it was hotter than an oven. You could melt lead at the
surface of Venus and there'd be no water."

But it was not always like that. Earth and Venus are in many ways sister
planets.

"Current theories suggest that Venus and the Earth may have started out
alike. There might have been a lot of water on Venus and there might have
been a lot of carbon dioxide on Earth," Professor Ingersoll explained.

But all that was to change. On Earth, life in the oceans took in carbon
dioxide and turned it into limestone. On Venus, 30% closer to the Sun, any
oceans boiled away and the water vapour added to the runaway greenhouse
effect.

Venus became our planet's ugly sister. Its make-over, which occurred
billions of years ago, has left a surface where the pressure is crushing.

Read the rest at BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3746583.stm

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