Deep within the atmosphere of Venus, life could be lurking — well, that's what some scientists think, at least.
In a recently published paper, a group of scientists lay out their case. For one thing, life's had a long time to evolve there. And space probes that visited Venus in the past showed conditions in the atmosphere weren't inhospitable to microbial life.
So you might have gathered from that last bit we're not talking human-sized aliens — these things will be microscopic. But that's also good news for the theory; some microscopic life on Earth can thrive in some pretty intense conditions.
And here's the kicker: There are weird, unexplained dark patches in the Venusian atmosphere. Those patches are similar in nature to a kind of light-absorbing bacteria back here on Earth.
Right now, we don't have any way to test the theory. But that might not be too far off. Aerospace company Northrop Grumman has developed a blimp-like craft it says could study Venus' atmosphere for up to a year.
