Lurking just below the atmosphere of Venus is a wall of acid clouds that whip around the planet at speeds close to that of a commercial air jet on Earth.

The newly discovered atmospheric "feature" looms about 31 miles (50 kilometers) below the thick cloud tops of Venus and is extensive, sometimes stretching as far as 4,660 miles (7,500 km) across the equator and mid-latitudes of Venus.

Enormous cloud patterns in the upper atmosphere are already well-known at Venus, including a bizarre "Y" shape that may arise from centrifugal forces, and a bow wave that could arise from air flow over static ground features like mountains.

The newly discovered cloud wall, however, is at a lower altitude and in a region of Venus' atmosphere where the greenhouse effect is quite pronounced, keeping the surface at lead-melting temperatures of 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius).

Researchers suggest the cloud wall could be linked to the mysterious and long-observed fast rotation in Venus' upper atmosphere.

However, the researchers added, the feature could be an atmospheric "Kelvin" wave, a class of atmospheric gravity waves that has already been observed at Venus!

Gravity waves in a planet's atmosphere (not to be confused with gravitational waves) happen when winds move at high speed over static geological features like a crater wall or a mountain; the updraft rises and sinks in a layer of stable air just above the feature.