Dark splotches on Venus could be signs of life

Washington : The clouds of Venus may possibly host alien life, say scientists who suggest that microbes may have evolved on the planet. Some models suggest Venus once had a habitable climate with liquid water on its surface for as long as two billion years. “That’s much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars,” said Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.

On Earth, terrestrial microorganisms - mostly bacteria -are capable of being swept into the atmosphere, where they have been found alive at altitudes as high as 41 kilometres by scientists using specially equipped balloons, according to David J Smith of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

There is also a growing catalogue of microbes known to inhabit incredibly harsh environments on our planet, including the hot springs of Yellowstone, deep ocean hydrothermal vents, the toxic sludge of polluted areas, and in acidic lakes worldwide.