Venus Beach

ALTHOUGH VENUS IS HAILED AS THE EARTH'S TWIN because the two planets are almost identical in size, no human would ever mistake the searing 900 degreesF temperatures of its surface for home. Yet the earth's nearest neighbor may have once been more hospitable. Scientists for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that Venus may have been covered by a shallow sea, 25 ft. to 75 ft. deep, 3 billion years ago. Data sent back by the Pioneer probe on its final plunge through Venus' atmosphere last October revealed an unusually high concentration of heavy hydrogen, also called deuterium, which can be explained only if the planet was once much wetter.

Researchers admit their evidence is at best suggestive. However, they calculate that the ocean could have lasted hundreds of millions of years before boiling away in Venus' runaway greenhouse effect, certainly enough time for life to have come -- and gone.