Venus’ mysterious haze is actually cosmic dust
AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Ars Technica, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.
Elizabeth Rayne
• October 1, 2026
Venus has long been known for its mysterious yellowish lower haze, which was first seen by the Venera and Pioneer Venus probes in the 1970s. For decades, scientists could not explain this layer. Planetary scientist Hiroki Karyu and his team at Tohoku University in Sendai City, Japan, recently determined that the haze is made of cosmic dust from meteorites. When space rocks enter Venus’s atmosphere, friction causes them to burn up, leaving behind particles. Sulfuric acid then interacts with these particles to form the haze. Karyu stated in a study published in Nature Astronomy that this continuous influx of cosmic dust sustains the observed haze layer.