A study found that Venus' lower haze is formed by cosmic dust particles from meteorites, not volcanic ash or surface dust, through a process similar to cloud formation on Earth.
Cosmic dust particles from meteorites interact with sulfuric acid to form the lower haze on Venus.
The haze forms through a process similar to cloud formation on Earth, with particles serving as condensation nuclei.
Iron compounds in the haze were previously suspected to be UV absorbers, but iron sulfate was confirmed as the absorber.
The study has implications for understanding haze formation on other planets, including gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.
Summarised automatically by AI from the original article by Ars Technica. AI can make mistakes, so check the original for details.
Venus is shrouded in a veil of mystery. The yellowish “lower haze” at the bottom of its atmosphere was discovered by the Venera and Pioneer Venus probes in the 1970s. These spacecraft were some of the first to successfully send images of the planet back to Earth, but the haze they saw went unexplained for decades. Now the mystery Venus was keeping has been unveiled.
What nobody knew then was that the haze is an accumulation of particles from meteorites. “Shooting stars” that burn up in the atmosphere leave behind cosmic dust particles, and after sulfuric acid interacts with these particles, it leaves behind a haze. Planetary scientist Hiroki Karyu and his research team at Tohoku University in Sendai City, Japan, finally figured out how the haze formed using a microphysical model. This type of model involves microphysics—the micro-scale processes that create clouds and precipitation on Earth and other bodies.
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