Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Princess of Evil]

The dissolving of SO₂ does not create oxygen ions. It creates ions of HSO₃ - and H +, or something. Would be glad if you linked the equation if it does. Cause this could be a mistake on my research part.

Most of Venus atmosphere is CO₂, which does in fact give off free oxygen atoms when irradiated. Venus's sulfuric acid generation reaction is:

CO₂ + radiation -> CO + O
SO₂ + O -> SO₃
2 SO₃ + 4 H2O -> 2 H₂SO₄ * H₂O

[Killer of Fate]

Do you have some sort of a source for this? Cause I can't find any references to
CO2 -> CO + O, via radiation
And the way I would imagine this working is
2CO2 -> 2CO + O2... (but I'm not even sure what this is, I couldn't find a direct source)

I also didn't find reference to the oxidation reaction you referred to, instead I found this [linked image]. On SO3's page.

And it goes 2SO2 + O2 -> 2SO3

How do you achieve 8 valence electrons with a singular atom of oxygen that only has 6 valence electrons? A singular oxygen atom will always be an unstable ion, because it's tied to 6 protons. You need it to be inside a compound. A stable form of oxygen that would consist only of a singular atom would make it a noble gas.

For example Helium exists in single atom form. You can't have single atom form of oxygen and have it be a stable form.

[Princess of Evil]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus

Of course it's not stable, it's freaking singular oxygen. It's stable enough to react with things, though.

[Thaago]

Just fyi, something being reactive does not necessarily make it an ion. A lone oxygen atom is highly reactive, but it is a charge neutral stable atom (not an ion) until it reaches something else to react to. Intermediate steps in reactions, especially those occurring in low density environments with a limited reaction rate, do not need to obey the '8 valence electron' rule (which lets be real is only a useful guideline/approximation anyways).

[Killer of Fate]

i guess, my chemistry knowledge is limited. I just do not understand why would the atmosphere of Venus existing at 1 bar and temperatures of like 50 degrees Celsius have a dominating population of singular oxygen atoms. And I was unable to find any like... Singular atom oxygen forms that wouldn't be just doubly ionized oxygen you find in vacuum environments. The other ones I found was the referred triplet, which I took a look for some more time and singlet, which I assumed to be similar in functioning. But both of these appear to be highly reactive compounds that are created for like... I dunno, by living organisms or something. They're not really a common natural form of oxygen. And they are also not singular atoms...

With all the research I've done, I feel like Venus' certain part of the atmosphere is a relatively habitable environment, but I am uncertain how exactly the clouds of sulphur behave. From what I read it doesn't rain Sulphur at does altitudes of which we are talking about. Though sulfuric clouds could still be a hazard and there could be plenty of factors to be considered, like wind speed for example...

[Princess of Evil]

i guess, my chemistry knowledge is limited. I just do not understand why would the atmosphere of Venus existing at 1 bar and temperatures of like 50 degrees Celsius have a dominating population of singular oxygen atoms.

It doesn't. Even the ionosphere (where the above reaction happens) doesn't. There's just enough for reactions.
Oxygen isn't *really* a problem on Venus, though. Venus atmosphere is 2/3rds oxygen - reminder that photosynthesis exists.

With all the research I've done, I feel like Venus' certain part of the atmosphere is a relatively habitable environment, but I am uncertain how exactly the clouds of sulphur behave. From what I read it doesn't rain Sulphur at does altitudes of which we are talking about. Though sulfuric clouds could still be a hazard and there could be plenty of factors to be considered, like wind speed for example...

Sulphur is a question, yeah, but not a big one. There are lifeforms on Earth that are protected against it.
I'm more wondering about nitrogen (Venus atmosphere has some, but not a lot), and the fact that most micronutrients on the planet are shielded from livable conditions by a layer of sulphuric acid storms and supercritical carbon dioxide, so life would revolve around active volcanoes.