50 Million Miles to Geek

This is major cool.

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.

Early on, Earth and Venus were pretty much alike. However, Venus's greater proximity to the Sun caused any water to boil away while generating a runaway greenhouse effect that turned the surface into "a hellish place" with crushing atmospheric pressures and temperatures that could melt lead, all wreathed in clouds of sulphuric acid.

But, according to Louis Irwin of the University of Texas at El Paso, the changes on Venus may have been slow. "It may well have been Earth-like long enough for life to either emerge or be transported there," he said.

Once established, life would have adapted to every environment, just as it did on Earth.

What makes this more intriguing is that

[t]wo years ago, Austrian scientists discovered bacteria living and reproducing within clouds on Earth. ...

The Venusian clouds are high in the atmosphere, where the temperature and pressure are quite Earth-like. There is even water present, though it is in the form of concentrated sulphuric acid.

But we now know of organisms that thrive in very acidic environments on Earth.

In fact, the sulphuric atmosphere could actually assist by providing protection against ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. David Grinspoon of the South West Research Institute in Colorado even

speculates that the organisms might even have evolved ways of making use of the UV, much like Earth plants use visible light for photosynthesis.

"One lifeform's deadly radiation may be another lifeform's lunch," he added.

Life is just so amazingly cool.