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Explanation: Why did an acidic haze spread across Venus? The unusual clouds were discovered last July by ESA's robotic Venus Express spacecraft currently orbiting Venus. The bright and smooth haze was found by Venus Express to be rich in sulfuric acid, created when an unknown process lifted water vapor and sulphur dioxide from lower levels into Venus' upper atmosphere. There, sunlight broke these molecules apart and some of them recombined into the volatile sulfuric acid. Over the course of just a few days last July, the smooth acidic clouds spread from the South Pole of Venus across half the planet. The above false-color picture of Venus was taken last July 23rd in ultraviolet light, and shows the unusual haze as relatively smooth regions across the image bottom. The cause of the dark streaks in the clouds is also not yet understood and is being researched.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Venus - clouds
Publications with words: Venus - clouds
See also:
- APOD: 2025 March 16 Á Venus and the Triply Ultraviolet Sun
- A Conjunction of Crescents
- Nacreous Clouds over Sweden
- APOD: 2024 November 19 Á Undulatus Clouds over Las Campanas Observatory
- APOD: 2024 July 7 Á Iridescent Clouds over Sweden
- APOD: 2024 January 8 Á The Phases of Venus
- Daytime Moon Meets Morning Star