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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute?

On June 4th we told you about iron snowflakes on Mercury. Today we have some radical¹ news about the atmosphere of Venus. Literally², a radical is a molecule³ that reacts easily with other chemicals because of an unpaired electron. Astronomers⁴ have found the hydroxyl radical in the Venusian atmosphere. Hydroxyl is oxygen with a single hydrogen H1O, if you like. The Venus Express probe discovered hydroxyl in the clouds that shroud⁵ the planet. Researchers from the European Space Agency announced the finding in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters. Hydroxyl is important on Earth, because it promotes the formation of ground-level ozone⁶, a pollutant⁷. Finding the radical on Venus will help scientists test their models of Venus’s atmosphere. Hydroxyl also exists in the thin Martian atmosphere where it’s thought to stabilize⁸ carbon dioxide and prevent it from becoming carbon monoxide. It may also be responsible for sterilizing⁹ the red planet’s top layers of soil.

Thanks for the minute for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Steve Mirsky.