Snow on Venus

I always enjoy reading David Bradley's features at Reactive Reports. His article on The Metallic Mounds of Mercury intrigued me. David descibes the implications of Laura Schaefer and Bruce Fegler's model of atmospheric chemistry on Venus. In a nutshell, the team concluded that the temperature and pressure of the Venusian atmosphere allow for the formation of frost and snow - not of water, but of lead and bismuth sulfides. In particular, the presence of bismuthite (Bi₂S₃) could explain the high albedo of Venus. Schaefer and Fegley propose a model for a similar situation on Io (Elsevier abstract is available here). I hope someday we got photographic confirmation of this model. Metal salt snow...too cool (I mean hot)!
Astrochemistry|Metals & Alloys