Jiang Clancy Zhijian, Rimmer Paul B, Lozano Gabriella G, Tosca Nicholas J, Kufner Corinna L, Sasselov Dimitar D, Thompson Samantha J
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing St., Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK.
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Ave, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
Sci Adv. 2024 Jan 5;10(1):eadg8826. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg8826. Epub 2024 Jan 3.
The clouds of Venus are believed to be composed of sulfuric acid (HSO) and minor constituents including iron-bearing compounds, and their respective concentrations vary with height in the thick Venusian atmosphere. This study experimentally investigates possible iron-bearing mineral phases that are stable under the unique conditions within Venusian clouds. Our results demonstrate that ferric iron can react with sulfuric acid to form two mineral phases: rhomboclase [(HO)Fe(SO)·3HO] and acid ferric sulfate [(HO)Fe(SO)]. A combination of these two mineral phases and dissolved Fe in varying concentrations of sulfuric acid are shown to be good candidates for explaining the 200- to 300-nm and 300- to 500-nm features of the reported unknown UV absorber. We, therefore, hypothesize a rich and largely unexplored heterogeneous chemistry in the cloud droplets of Venus that has a large effect on the optical properties of the clouds and the behavior of trace gas species throughout Venus's atmosphere.
金星的云层被认为是由硫酸（HSO）和包括含铁化合物在内的微量成分组成，在浓厚的金星大气层中，它们各自的浓度随高度而变化。本研究通过实验研究了在金星云层独特条件下稳定的可能含铁矿物相。我们的结果表明，三价铁可与硫酸反应形成两种矿物相：斜方晶（[(HO)Fe(SO)·3HO]）和酸性硫酸铁（[(HO)Fe(SO)]）。这两种矿物相以及溶解在不同浓度硫酸中的铁的组合，被证明是解释所报道的未知紫外线吸收剂200至300纳米和300至500纳米特征的良好候选物。因此，我们推测金星云滴中存在丰富且很大程度上未被探索的非均相化学，这对云层的光学特性以及金星整个大气层中痕量气体物种的行为有很大影响。
