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Amino acids can survive in concentrated sulphuric acid similar to that found in Venus鈥檚 clouds. This doesn鈥檛 make Earth-like life more likely in these clouds, but it does open the possibility of a kind of life based on sulphuric acid instead of water.

Whether Venus鈥檚 clouds can harbour life has been hotly argued by scientists in recent years, especially after phosphine, a molecule produced predominantly by living organisms, was spotted in the planet鈥檚 atmosphere. Though this result was later questioned by further analyses, scientists haven鈥檛 stopped exploring whether the conditions in Venus鈥檚 clouds might support some kind of life, Earth-like or otherwise.

Now, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her colleagues have found that 19 amino acids used by life on Earth to make proteins are relatively unchanged when placed in concentrated sulphuric acid similar to that found in Venus鈥檚 clouds.

They discovered that 13 of the amino acids were unchanged by a 98 per cent solution of sulphuric acid, with the remaining six undergoing modification of the molecular 鈥渟ide chain鈥�, which is the part of the amino acid that determines its chemical properties.

Seager and her team have also found that nucleic acids, which make up DNA, . 鈥淲e鈥檙e toying with this idea that if there is life, perhaps it uses sulphuric acid as its solvent, and that鈥檚 just insane,鈥� says Seager.

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We don鈥檛 know exactly what a sulphuric acid-based life would like, but amino acids are a good starting point, says at the University of Cambridge. 鈥淸Perhaps] there are different ways of linking them together in sulphuric acid.鈥�

While sulphuric acid is a large component of Venus鈥檚 clouds, they also contain many more chemicals hostile to life, as well as lacking some of the conditions thought necessary for life, says at the University of Aberdeen, UK. In 2021, for example, Martin-Torres and his colleagues found that Venus鈥檚 clouds were too dry to plausibly support life as we know it.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not arrogant or creative enough to develop an entire biochemistry for another life form and another solvent,鈥� says Seager. 鈥淲e鈥檙e exploring different tangents here.鈥�