Colonization of Venus
Venus's atmosphere is made mostly out of carbon dioxide, which, after filtering from sulfuric acid, can be used to grow food. Because nitrogen and oxygen are lighter than the carbon-dioxide that makes the atmosphere, breathable-air-filled balloons will float at a height of about . At this height, the temperature is a manageable ; or if we could get higher (see ).
Life on Venus
Venus's location closer to the Sun than Earth and the extreme greenhouse effect raising temperatures on the surface to nearly , and the atmospheric pressure 90 times that of Earth, make water-based life as we know it unlikely on the surface of the planet. However, a few scientists have speculated that thermoacidophilic extremophile microorganisms might exist in the lower-temperature, acidic upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere.