In the search for life beyond Earth, humans have sent robots to the rocky surface of Mars, deployed spacecraft to investigate the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and aimed their most powerful telescopes toward distant solar systems.
But now, in an unexpected twist, a group of scientists say they have found possible signs of extraterrestrial life in a place where few had thought to look: high in the thick, toxic clouds of Venus, our closest planetary neighbor.
In that noxious environment, they discovered a gas called phosphine that is associated with life on Earth.