- RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT
- 16 April 2026
Modelling suggests that the layer beneath the planet’s acidic clouds is comprised of particles from outer space.
An enigmatic, 20-kilometre-thick layer of dust lies underneath the clouds of Venus, photographed here during a 1974 flyby by NASA's Mariner 10 probe. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
There’s a mystery surrounding the Solar System’s hottest planet. Just beneath Venus’s layer of acidic clouds lies a roughly 20-kilometre-thick haze. Researchers have long known about the haze — and that its particles must contribute to the formation of the planet’s clouds — yet its origins have gone unexplained.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01212-5
