Hell, the Soviets have dropped, what, 15?, landers into the atmosphere since the late 60's. From what we know about the incredible survivability of micro organisms, I'd be unsurprised to find that what we're seeing is our own bugs, seeded by our own landing craft, having found a niche floating around in the upper clouds where the environment is cozy.

[–] meleecrits 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You bring up a good point. There's strong arguments to be made that Venus has been "contaminated" by the Soviet probes. That's why NASA is being so careful with the Europa Clipper.

If there is life in the clouds of Venus, it will be hard to verify if it's natural, or from Earth.

[–] frigidaphelion 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

My understanding is that Venus/Mars are close enough to Earth that, even without factoring human intervention, we still likely wouldnt be able to rule out cross contamination between the inner planets

[–] Zron 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Venus is close to earth in that it has a dense atmosphere and is about the same size. Somewhere in the atmosphere is probably a layer that has enough oxygen, pressure, and is shielded from enough radiation for life to survive.

Mars is very different from either of earth or Venus.

It has 1% of the atmosphere as earth, what atmosphere it does have has nearly all CO2, and it only has 1/3rd the gravity. Its surface is constantly blasted by enough solar radiation to effectively sterilize anything on the surface, and the ground is full of toxic salts. I would much rather be in a cloud on Venus than anywhere on the surface of mars.

[–] frigidaphelion 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I was speaking of their proximity in space, sorry for not being clear. Very good info regardless

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

It was pretty clear to me that you meant spatial proximity.

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