Scientists Recast Venus Clouds as 60% Water From 1978 Probe Data
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 7
Scientists Recast Venus Clouds as 60% Water From 1978 Probe Data
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 7
Summary
A peer-reviewed reanalysis of NASA’s 1978 Pioneer Venus data argues some middle and lower cloud particles were about 60% water by mass, with ferric sulphate and sulphuric acid each near 20%.
The claim comes from an accidental aerosol experiment: cloud particles likely clogged probe inlets, then heated during descent and released gases that the team used to reconstruct particle composition.
Signals near 185C and 414C were linked to hydrated compounds, but much of the inferred water may have been chemically bound in salts rather than present as free liquid water.
The result challenges the simple picture of clouds dominated by concentrated sulphuric acid, yet it remains provisional because the instruments were not built to collect intact aerosols or show how representative the sampled material was.
That means the study reopens a measurement question—not a habitability case—and a purpose-built mission such as NASA’s DAVINCI will be needed to test Venus cloud particles directly.