It has generally been thought that if life in our solar system exists anywhere else but Earth, then Mars is the most likely place. With the discovery of possible signs of life from a meteorite originating on Mars, this planet's potential has been hightened even more. However, new research is suggesting that Venus may be harboring life in its upper atmosphere [here].

Even more mysterious is the presence [on Venus] of carbonyl sulphide. This gas is so difficult to produce inorganically that it is sometimes considered an unambiguous indicator of biological activity.

"There may be non-biological ways to produce the hydrogen sulphide or carbonyl sulphide that we do not know about, but both reactions need catalysts to proceed efficiently," says Schulze-Makuch. "On Earth, the most efficient catalysts are microbes."

This type of evidence is more appealing to me than the metorite from Mars. The Mars rock showed crystals that resemble those created by microbes found on Earth. This does not definitively prove that the crystals found in the metorite where created by the same process, other processes could be responsible. On the other hand, the Venus finding is more convincing because our knowledge of the chemical reactions involved is more robust and leaves less room for doubt.
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