ArticleAstrobiology2018
Venus' Spectral Signatures and the Potential for Life in the Clouds.
Article in Astrobiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Acidophilic fungi as possible candidates for living forms in the Venus clouds.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Synthesis of Azatide Dipeptide Analogs and Their Stability and Reactivity in 98%Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Stability and Reactivity of Cyclopentane Nucleoside Analogs in 98%Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Stability and Reactivity of Alternative Nucleobases in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Current understanding of electroautotrophy and its relevance in astrobiology-related research.mLife · 2025Review
- Modelling exo-biospheres for biosignature predictions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Particle associated denitrification in coastal aquaculture water.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Life on Venus?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Astrobiological implications of the stability and reactivity of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) in concentrated sulfuric acid.Science advances · 2025Article
- On the possibility of carbon-free heteropolymers on Venus: a computational astrobiology study.QRB discovery · 2025Article
- Bacterial Hybrid Light-Emitting Diodes.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2024Article
- General instability of dipeptides in concentrated sulfuric acid as relevant for the Venus cloud habitability.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Year-Long Stability of Nucleic Acid Bases in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Persistence of Organic Chemistry in Venus' Clouds.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Stability of 20 Biogenic Amino Acids in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Habitability of Venus' Clouds.Astrobiology · 2024Article
- Characterize the Growth and Metabolism ofMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus' clouds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Method for Accurate Detection of Amino Acids and Mycotoxins in Planetary Atmospheres.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Unraveling sulfur chemistry in interstellar carbon oxide ices.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Proposed energy-metabolisms cannot explain the atmospheric chemistry of Venus.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Bacterial Growth in Brines Formed by the Deliquescence of Salts Relevant to Cold Arid Worlds.Astrobiology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The lower cloud layer of Venus (47.5-50.5 km) is an exceptional target for exploration due to the favorable conditions for microbial life, including moderate temperatures and pressures (∼60°C and 1 atm), and the presence of micron-sized sulfuric acid aerosols. Nearly a century after the ultraviolet (UV) contrasts of Venus' cloud layer were discovered with Earth-based photographs, the substances and mechanisms responsible for the changes in Venus' contrasts and albedo are still unknown. While current models include sulfur dioxide and iron chloride as the UV absorbers, the temporal and spatial changes in contrasts, and albedo, between 330 and 500 nm, remain to be fully explained. Within this context, we present a discussion regarding the potential for microorganisms to survive in Venus' lower clouds and contribute to the observed bulk spectra. In this article, we provide an overview of relevant Venus observations, compare the spectral and physical properties of Venus' clouds to terrestrial biological materials, review the potential for an iron- and sulfur-centered metabolism in the clouds, discuss conceivable mechanisms of transport from the surface toward a more habitable zone in the clouds, and identify spectral and biological experiments that could measure the habitability of Venus' clouds and terrestrial analogues. Together, our lines of reasoning suggest that particles in Venus' lower clouds contain sufficient mass balance to harbor microorganisms, water, and solutes, and potentially sufficient biomass to be detected by optical methods. As such, the comparisons presented in this article warrant further investigations into the prospect of biosignatures in Venus' clouds.
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