"But Venus' skies still remain a possible abode for alien microbes."
Okay, it seems keep hope alive here for *alien microbes* on Venus
In 1871 Charles Darwin published his letter on the origin of life from non-living matter in the warm little pond, Henrietta did not make progress in that letter, and 28-Feb-1882 he acknowledges nothing worthwhile presented to show this origin postulate for life (abiogenesis). Astrobiology apparently extended the warm little pond of 1871 well beyond Earth. Presently there is 395 exoplanets with radii 0.38 to 1.2 earth size listed,
https://exoplanet.eu/home/, so far I have not seen reports showing these exoplanets have life on them.
K2-18 b in the recent past reported there may be life on it, nothing follow up though I have read to confirm this view.
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered that an exoplanet around twice the size of Earth that is already suspected of possessing a liquid water ocean has carbon-based molecules in its atmosphere. Exoplanet's surface may be covered in oceans, James Webb Space Telescope finds : Read more
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