“Venus is virtually as large as the earth and, as it is much nearer the sunlight, its temperature ought to be higher than that of the earth. The ordinary temperature is estimated to be about one hundred forty levels F. Numerous phenomena show up to reveal that the earth is surrounded by a comparatively dense and cloudy environment which, in truth, is evidently viewed as a luminous border, in the transits of Venus in excess of the sun’s disk, which come about once or 2 times in a century. This dense environment strongly displays the sun’s rays and consequently stops the floor of the earth from attaining a temperature way too elevated for remarkably organized lifestyle. The earth would be regarded as habitable.”

—Scientific American, March 1911

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