Life on Venus?

Venus is not ife on Venus?generally at the forefront when considering extraterrestrial life. Yet, based on the physical similarities and proximity to Earth and with the little knowledge of its evolutionary history speculate, there is a possibility that Venus may have hosted life in the past on the surface if Venus had liquid water and perhaps even present in the clouds today.  While the early suggestions during the beginning of the space exploration about life on Venus were mostly speculative due to limited data, recent interest has arisen from realizations  (i) the unexplained ultraviolet absorption spectrum of Venus resembles many organics, (ii) there is chemical disequilibria in the cloud layer, (iii) the cloud aerosols likely contain significant abundances of hydrated iron and magnesium sulfates, and (iv) the solar radiation received in the cloud layer contains the appropriate wavelengths and flux to support phototrophy.  Considering the extreme survival of many terrestrial microorganisms, the possibility remains that any extant life on Venus in the past could have adapted to survival in the cloud layer far above the surface where energy, nutrients are available but the precise compositions of the cloud particles and water availability are still uncertain. The key to solving the mystery of life on Venus is to determine if Venus had liquid water on the surface in its past and to measure the precise chemical composition of the Venus atmosphere and the cloud particles.