Active Volcanoes on Venus: A Living Planet Unveiled!

 Decades-old Radar Images Reveal Fresh Lava Flows

For years, scientists believed Venus was geologically dead, but new evidence suggests that active volcanoes may be common on this second planet from the sun. This groundbreaking discovery emerged from a careful review of photos taken over 30 years ago.

"This definitely is another step in the path to understanding Venus as a living, breathing world," says Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis.

The slopes of Sif Mons, a large volcano on Venus, show signs of relatively recent lava flows (above arrow, highlighted in red). A NASA spacecraft that orbited Venus took this image in the early 1990s.

Key Findings:

  • Venus is nearly Earth-sized, and its core might be as hot as Earth's, which could drive volcanic activity.
  • Between 1990 and 1992, NASA's Magellan spacecraft captured radar images of Venus. Recently, researchers found evidence of volcanic activity in these images.
  • The study uncovered two more sites showing signs of volcanic activity: the western slopes of Sif Mons and Niobe Planitia.
  • The new findings were reported by Italian researchers on May 27 in Nature Astronomy.

What's Next? NASA plans to launch two probes in the 2030s to map Venus’s surface in greater detail, potentially uncovering more signs of active volcanoes.

By:- Ranjan

#VenusVolcanoes #LivingVenus #SpaceDiscovery #NASA #PlanetaryScience #VolcanicActivity

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