Short story about planet deemed uninhabitable due to poisonous oxygen clouds around it

I'm looking for a science fiction short story I read many years ago. The storyline is a planet being observed for possibility of life and the conclusion is it is uninhabitable because of the 'poisonous oxygen clouds' around it. The twist is that it is an alien observing Planet Earth. Any ideas of author? I have tried all manner of permutations of keywords on Google etc, but drawn a blank. Thanks in advance.

Answer

This sounds like it could be Report on Planet Three by Arthur C Clarke; it's presented as a report (hence the name) made by Martians observing Earth, and goes through some key differences between the two planets from the perspective of a hypothetical Martian civilization, of one those differences being - of course - the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere.

The thick gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth contains large amounts of the poisonous and very reactive element oxygen...

Other differences called out include temperature, gravity, fire, water, and it all feeds into speculation about the possibility of life on Earth (which the Martians deem unlikely owing to "violent climatic extremes", among other reasons).

It ends with some discussion of the possibility of sending a probe to Earth and the unfortunate demise of the Martians in a nuclear war (which the feigned translator notes happened just at the same time as our "historical" Trojan War.)

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