Researchers believe that the atmosphere of Venus might already be home to living microbes, due to the fact that phosphine, a gas typically considered a biosignature, has been detected on the planet. Such lifeforms could use sulphuric acid as a solvent instead of water and be detected by future astrobiology-focused space missions.
With that said, cloud cities on Venus may also one day become a reality and support human life. Put simply, each one would consist of connected rafts made from hollow linked sections that together form a flexible surface. Machines would then begin to alter the air above it into a breathable mix for humans, but changing the hot air below the rafts would take hundreds of years, if not thousands. Venus somewhat similar to to Earth and only about 30% closer to the Sun than our own planet. Its atmosphere is 90-times thicker than Earth’s, composed mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2), and shrouded in clouds of pure sulfuric acid.
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The clouds can support a biomass that could readily be detectable by future astrobiology-focused space missions from its impact on the atmosphere. Although we consider the prospects for finding life on Venus to be speculative, they are not absent. The scientific reward from finding life in such an un-Earthlike environment justifies considering how observations and missions should be designed to be capable of detecting life if it is there,” said William Bains, Molecular Biologist at Cardiff University in the UK and MIT.
