VERIFIED FACT

Venus has sulfuric acid rain that evaporates before reaching the ground.

Why this sounds fake

Rain means water in our heads, and even acid rain still sounds like something that reaches the ground.

Rain means water in most people's heads, and even “acid rain” still sounds like rain that lands somewhere. Venus is stranger. NASA says Venus has clouds made of sulfuric acid, and a NASA Glenn description notes that the acid rain evaporates back into the cloud environment because the planet is so hot. So Venus has the ingredients for a nightmare weather report, but the surface is hot enough that the rain does not make it down. It is a planet where even the bad weather cannot survive the ground.

The Surprise

On Venus the rain is sulfuric acid - and it boils back up before it touches the ground.

Vertical cross-section of Venus's atmosphere. Top band: thick yellow sulfuric-acid cloud layer with an H2SO4 label. Middle band: cyan rain arrows leaving the clouds. Lower middle: those rain arrows curve back upward in a red-tinted evaporation zone marked EVAPORATES BACK UP, showing the rain never reaches the ground. Bottom band: hot red rocky surface labelled about 465 degrees Celsius (869 Fahrenheit).
Acid clouds, falling rain, evaporation, ~465 C surface that never sees a drop.

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