What substance primarily composes the highly reflective clouds of Venus that cause its spectacular glow?
Answer
Sulfuric acid
The intense brightness of Venus is attributed to its unique cloud composition. These clouds are primarily made up of sulfuric acid. This substance possesses extremely high reflectivity, acting much like a colossal, curved mirror in space. This mirror effect allows the clouds to bounce back approximately 75% of the sunlight that impacts them, leading to the brilliant silvery-white beacon appearance observed from Earth, even when the planet is near the horizon during twilight hours.
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