What are the clouds of venus made of?

The search for life beyond Earth has largely revolved around our rocky red neighbor. NASA has launched multiple rovers over the years, Now, in a surprising twist, scientists at MIT, Cardiff University, and elsewhere have observed what may be signs of life in the clouds of our other, even closer planetary neighbor, Venus. While they have not found direct evidence of living organisms there, if their observation is indeed associated with life, it must be some sort of “aerial” life-form in Venus’ clouds — the only habitable portion of what is otherwise a scorched and inhospitable world. Their discovery and analysis is published today in the journal Nature Astronomy. The astronomers, led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, detected in Venus’ atmosphere a spectral fingerprint, or light-based signature, of . MIT scientists have previously shown that if this stinky, poisonous gas were ever detected on a rocky, terrestrial planet, it could only be produced by a living organism there. The researchers made the detection using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory in Chile. The MIT team followed up the new observation with an exhaustive analysis to see whether anything other than life could have produced phosphine in Venus’ harsh, sulfuric environment. Based on the many scenarios they considered, the team concludes that there is no explanation for the phosphine detected in Venus’ clouds, other than the presence...

Atmospheric makeup The atmosphere of Venus is made up almost completely of carbon dioxide. It also includes small doses of nitrogen and clouds of sulfuric acid. The air of Venus is so dense that by mass, the small traces of nitrogen are four times the amount found on Earth, although nitrogen makes up more than three-fourths of the terrestrial atmosphere. This composition causes a In addition to warming the planet, the heavy clouds shield it, preventing visible observations of the False-colour image of cloud features seen on Venus by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Venus Express. (Image credit: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA) Climate and weather Winds of about 224 mph (360 kph) keep the clouds of Venus in constant motion. Though the planet On Earth, seasons change based on the planet's tilt: When a hemisphere is closer to the sun, it experiences warmer temperatures. But on Venus, most of the sun's heat fails to make it through the thick atmosphere. As such, the planet not only doesn't experience The clouds of Venus appear bright white or yellow. Unlike Jupiter or Saturn, there are no discernable bands or storms visible to the naked eye. Further reading: • • • This article was updated on Oct. 18, 2018 by Space.com Senior Writer, Meghan Bartels. Nola Taylor Tillman is a contributing writer for Space.com. She loves all things space and astronomy-related, and enjoys the opportunity to learn more. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English and Astrophysics from Agnes Scott college and served ...

It is a well-known fact that an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid completely shrouds Venus preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. This is mentioned in the official NASA site and also in some papers: • The atmosphere of Venus is made up mainly of carbon dioxide, and thick clouds of sulfuric acid completely cover the planet. ( • The clouds that completely shroud the planet are located in the altitude range of approximately 50–70 km with upper and lower haze extending up to about 100 km and 30 km correspondingly, thus occupying the upper troposphere and the entire mesosphere. Titov, D.V., Ignatiev, N.I., McGouldrick, K. et al. Clouds and Hazes of Venus. Space Sci Rev 214, 126 (2018). • The sky of Venus is fully covered by thick clouds of sulfuric acid that are located at a height of 45-70 km, making it hard to observe the planet's surface from Earth-based telescopes and orbiters circling Venus. ( But there is much less sulfuric acid than water !". So, if there is less sulfuric acid than water ( which is already present in trace amount): • how is it able to "completely spread over" and "fully cover the planet"? • why is the cloud cover so thick (so thick that it reflects most of the solar radiation (except in $\begingroup$ I am not convinced that the referenced answer by @Cornelinspace is correct. I am also not sure it is incorrect, so I didn't downvote that answer. The key problem is that Cornelinspace takes the mass of the...