Speculation of the composition of Eve's atmosphere

[AstronautGeologist]

What are the white patches of ground that can be seen from orbit? Does anyone know?

[Brotoro]

White patches? Picture, please.

The high plateaus used to be lighter in color in the previous version of Eve, but since it was re-done in version 0.18 the highest elevations were removed, and the high elevations now appear darker than the lowlands.

[th3shameless]

What are the white patches of ground that can be seen from orbit? Does anyone know?

maybe you're seeing a small lake

[AstronautGeologist]

I don't know but I was looking at Eve in the tracking station so...

[Acidum]

What are the possible abiotic sources for Iodine, and could such abiotic sources result in significant amounts of Iodine in a planet's atmosphere?

Possible abiotic sources of purple color could be compounds of manganese and cobalt. Iodine is quite reactive, and it is strong oxidant, so atmosphere on Eve should be highly oxidative in order for iodine to remain in elementary state.

What are the possible biotic sources for Iodine, and could such biotic sources result in significant amounts of Iodine in a planet's atmosphere?

You could easily imagine a microorganisms (single cellular or colony-type, like algae) that produce iodine in a similar way that our (Earthly) produce oxygen. Soil would be likely rich in iodine, but it is not obligatory. Evolutionary reasons for production of iodine could be similar to those for production of oxygen on Earth. It is toxic for all non-adapted organisms, so it could eradicate early microbial foes. It can be final product of redox processes.

Darker purple coloration of soil could be because of microorganisms themselves - they could be rich in "proteins" (or any similar molecular species) containing manganese in high oxidation state.

Why no higher organisms? Solar irradiation could kill any organisms more complex than those considered here. Iodine could intoxicate any wannabe emerging species. Purple-iodogeneric-algae could be THE most adapted species for conditions on Eve, top of evolutionary ladder, and that is why they are spread across entire planet.

PS. If you consider speed of reactions with oxygen and with iodine, it is easy to explain that those organisms have quite slow metabolism, they die off very slowly, and they are easily replaced by slowly produced new offsprings. Heck, they could easily be older than Kerbals or any Kerbin lifeform!

[HahTse]

Never mind.

Edited November 19, 2014 by HahTse
Made an error in my calculations.

[SmartS=true]

That is for solid or liquid iodine. Actually, those are purple, just so dark that they appear black.