PLANETARY SCIENCE:
Don't Ignore the Planet Next Door
Oliver Morton
LONDON--NASA and the world's other space agencies spend vastly more money on missions to Mars than to Venus because Mars's surface was marked by water in the distant past--meaning the possibility of life, in the past if not the present--whereas water is something that Venus conspicuously lacks. But is it time for a closer look at Venus? Some researchers say life could exist in its veil of clouds, and it could help us understand planets around distant stars.