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There could be life on the planet Venus, US scientists have concluded in a report in the journal Astrobiology.
The existence of life on the planet's oven-hot surface is unimaginable.
But microbes could survive and reproduce, experts say, floating in the thick, cloudy atmosphere, protected by a sunscreen of sulphur compounds.
Scientists have even submitted a proposal for a Nasa space mission to sample the clouds and attempt to return any presumed Venusians to Earth.
"Venus is really a hellish place," said Professor Andrew Ingersoll, of the California Institute of Technology.
"If you could get through the sulphuric acid clouds down to the surface of Venus you'd find it was hotter than an oven. You could melt lead at the surface of Venus and there'd be no water."
But it was not always like that. Earth and Venus are in many ways sister planets.
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