CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — MIT researchers say Earth’s cousin Venus shows signs it might have the special ingredient needed to support life in the extremely acidic clouds of the hellish second rock from the sun.


Scientists from MIT have come up with a controversial new theory for why life might exist in the clouds of Venus.


In a paper that has now been accepted into the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers say that data from two probe missions in the 1970s make them suspect that ammonia is present in the highly acidic clouds of Venus.


This follows shocking revelations last year that significant amounts of phosphine were discovered in the atmosphere of Venus.


At the time, scientists claimed this was a sign of life, as phosphine is often created when organic matter breaks down on Earth.


Other scientists scoffed at the idea that life forms could exist in the thick, carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere, as such life forms would also have to be resistant to the extremely acidic droplets of sulfuric acid in the clouds.


The MIT researchers now claim that this acid could be neutralized by the ammonia they now suspect could be present in the clouds.


Ammonia would set off a long chain of chemical reactions that could turn Venus’ clouds into a more hospitable place, they say.


The researchers said that “life could be making its own environment on Venus.”


They concluded: “Our model therefore predicts that the clouds are more habitable than previously thought, and may be inhabited.”