Bridget Gleason, age 11,

What are the clouds of Venus made of?

Venus, which comes closer to us than any of the other planets, 3s in many ways the most mysterious  Its cloudy atmosphere is too dense for any of our instruments to pierce  And we are not sure of what these blotchy clouds are made  For a long time, many experts believed them to be blowing dust 

Later some claimed to have detected water vapor and others suggested that the dense veils contained salts of various kinds  Most experts note agree that the upper levels of the atmosphere contain large amounts of carbon dioxide  We cannot be sure what other substances are there until more research has been done on these mysterious veils of Venus 

For further information go to Jet Propulsion Lab site listed Science News in our main menu.