Abstract

The clouds of Venus are believed to be composed of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and minor constituents including iron-bearing compounds, and their respective concentrations vary with height in the thick Venusian atmosphere. I will talk about an experimentally investigation into possible iron-bearing mineral phases that are stable under the unique conditions within Venusian clouds. This work was carried out in collaboration with physicists and geochemists. Together, we found that that ferric iron can react with sulfuric acid to form two mineral phases: rhomboclase and acid ferric sulfate. A combination of these two mineral phases and dissolved Fe3+ in varying concentrations of sulfuric acid are shown to be good candidates for explaining the 200−300nm and 300−500nm features of the reported unknown UV absorber. I will show this comparison, and conclude by speculating about a rich, largely unexplored heterogeneous chemistry in the cloud droplets of Venus that has a large affect on the optical properties of the clouds and could change the behavior of trace gas species throughout Venus’s atmosphere.