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Originally Posted by Huevos Grandes
The extremophile comparison work is relatively new, but I would have thought such an "evolved" form of bacterium (tiny, yet loft-capable spore, long dormant/growth phases, extreme temperature resistance, etc.) would have to have been initiated by a more archaic, less specialized, and less hardy species.
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This is the reason why proponents of this idea think that early life on venus evolved in the assumed early venusian oceans, just like earth life. And only when these oceans began to boil away after the first billion years of venusian history venusian life adapted to live in the clouds.
Cloud dwelling bacteria are known on earth too. But when the boiling oceans began to create a constant planet wide cloud cover the environmental conditions became much more favorable to cloud dwelling organisms then they are on earth.
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Originally Posted by Huevos Grandes
Also, wouldn't these flying colonies need to be huge to be detected and isolated as UV-absorbing, and non-spheroid ?
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These supposed organisms where not isolated yet. The non spheroidical nature of some of the cloud "droplets" was (as far as I understand) computed from light scattering patterns in the clouds measured by (mostly russian) probes falling through the clouds. These light scattering particles are of microbial size, no one has seen them directly. But their supposed non-sphericality indicates that they are not liquid.
Their tiny size would allow them to float in the atmosphere much like the "normal" cloud particles do.
UV absorbing patches in the clouds can be seen from orbit, with Hubble even from earth. they are supposed not to be from single organisms or colonies but due to the same effect why plancton rich ocean parts in earth oceans look green from earth orbit.
No one knows yet if the non spherical particles are the same as the UV absorbing. That they might be the same and that they might be living organisms is not much more then a guess yet.
When venus express begins its examination of the venusian atmosphere the coming spring we will hopefully learn more about what is going on there. To identify the unknown UV-absorber and to investigate the atmospheric chemistry in detail are parts of its main mission goals.