ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023
Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus' clouds.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Peptides adopt stable omega-loop structures in concentrated sulfuric acid.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Exploration of extraterrestrial biosignatures and planetary habitability: A prospect.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- 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
- Warm, water-depleted rocky exoplanets with surface ionic liquids: A proposed class for planetary habitability.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The diversity of exoplanetary environments and the search for signs of life beyond Earth.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- 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
- Article
- Venus cloud catcher as a proof of concept aerosol collection instrument.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- General instability of dipeptides in concentrated sulfuric acid as relevant for the Venus cloud habitability.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Formation of Chromophores fromJournal of the American Chemical Society · 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
- 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
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13 authors.
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Abstract
What constitutes a habitable planet is a frontier to be explored and requires pushing the boundaries of our terracentric viewpoint for what we deem to be a habitable environment. Despite Venus' 700 K surface temperature being too hot for any plausible solvent and most organic covalent chemistry, Venus' cloud-filled atmosphere layers at 48 to 60 km above the surface hold the main requirements for life: suitable temperatures for covalent bonds; an energy source (sunlight); and a liquid solvent. Yet, the Venus clouds are widely thought to be incapable of supporting life because the droplets are composed of concentrated liquid sulfuric acid-an aggressive solvent that is assumed to rapidly destroy most biochemicals of life on Earth. Recent work, however, demonstrates that a rich organic chemistry can evolve from simple precursor molecules seeded into concentrated sulfuric acid, a result that is corroborated by domain knowledge in industry that such chemistry leads to complex molecules, including aromatics. We aim to expand the set of molecules known to be stable in concentrated sulfuric acid. Here, we show that nucleic acid bases adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil, as well as 2,6-diaminopurine and the "core" nucleic acid bases purine and pyrimidine, are stable in sulfuric acid in the Venus cloud temperature and sulfuric acid concentration range, using UV spectroscopy and combinations of 1D and 2D
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