---
title: "MIT Scientists Suggest Life Could Thrive in the Clouds of Venus"
description: "Learn about the new information MIT Scientists have found on how microbes could survive life on the sulfurous clouds of venus."
date: "2020-08-18"
modified: "2020-08-26"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-life-thrive-clouds-venus"
categories:
  - "Biology"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "astrobiology"
  - "extraterrestrial life"
  - "the digest"
  - "Venus"
---

# MIT Scientists Suggest Life Could Thrive in the Clouds of Venus

![Scientists have long suggested that microbes could theoretically live in the sulfurous clouds of Venus. An MIT team has more ideas on how that would work.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mit-life-thrive-clouds-venus.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/JPL-CalTech\</em\>*

## Cloud City

A team of MIT scientists has proposed an outlandish idea: that the sulfur-rich clouds of Venus could be teeming with microbial life.

It's not a new idea — [As *Air & Space Magazine* reports](<https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/microbes-clouds-venus-180975580/>), Carl Sagan first floated the hypothesis more than 50 years ago. But MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager and her team have new ideas about how these microbes might survive, lending new credibility to the speculation that life could have persisted for millions of years on perhaps the [most hellish planet](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-venus-rover-exploring-hell>) in the solar system.

## Making Do

In theory, microbes could make use of Venus' sulfur clouds by converting them into compounds that protect the organisms from harsh UV rays and others that enable them to photosynthesize. But the main challenge would be keeping aloft: If the microbes fall into a lower level of the atmosphere, they would be incinerated.

While Seager conceded [in her research](<https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2020.2244>), published last week in the journal *Astrobiology*, that her ideas are entirely speculative, she suggests the microbes could cycle upward and downward like the blobs in a lava lamp.

## Motion Sickness

Basically, the research suggests, microbes could survive in upper layers of the atmosphere, where they remain active and rapidly reproduce to maintain population levels. When they inevitably drop downward, they would fall into dormancy. Some would be incinerated, but others would then be carried back upward by turbulent updrafts and spring back to life.

Again, this is all hypothetical— but with a [growing interest](<https://futurism.com/nasa-scientists-imagine-studying-venus-from-a-floating-research-colony>) in launching a mission to the clouds of Venus, scientists may be able to soon search for life there directly.

**READ MORE:** [Microbes in the Clouds of Venus](<https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/microbes-clouds-venus-180975580/>) \[*Air & Space Magazine*\]

**More on Venus:** *[NASA Venus Rover Designed for "Exploring Hell"](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-venus-rover-exploring-hell>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)