Scientists have found new evidence of volcanic activity reshaping the surface of Venus, which could even suggest that its activity rivals that of modern Earth.
In 2023, scientists analyzing archival data collected by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft made a historic announcement that they had discovered direct evidence of a volcanic eruption on Venus that occurred between February and October 1991. The explosive force of the event reshaped the crater of the huge Maat Mons volcano located near the planet’s equator, leaving filled to the brim with burning lava.
The discovery was a watershed moment, as evidence of Venus’ volcanoes helped scientists paint a clearer picture of what’s going on beneath the tortured planet’s surface, allowing researchers to more clearly model its evolution and habitability. Now, scientists examining Magellan’s data have found new evidence of volcanic activity on Venus, which may even suggest the planet is host to a similar level of volcanism to Earth today.
More evidence of a volcanic Venus 🌋
By analyzing archival data from @NASAAs part of the Magellan mission, scientists identified two volcanoes that erupted on Venus in the early 1990s. https://t.co/auSi80TljE pic.twitter.com/OVckq2I4nV
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) May 27, 2024
To make their discovery, a team of researchers compared surface maps detailing the topography of two regions of the Venutian surface as observed by NASA spacecraft between 1990 and 1992. The first site of interest was the area around the Sif Mons volcano located in the Southern Hemisphere of Venus, while the second was an area known as Niobe Planitia that lies near the planet’s equator.
The super thick atmosphere of Venus prevents us from simply observing the surface as you could with Earth. Instead, Magellan was able to create detailed maps of the planet’s topography by bouncing radar waves off the surface and listening to the resulting echoes, or “backscatter.” Using this method, scientists were able to understand the surface of Venus in detail, which revealed detailed information about its composition, height and many other characteristics.
“Using these maps as a guide, our results show that Venus may be more volcanically active than previously thought,” explained Davide Sulcanese of d’Annunzio University in Pescara, Italy, who led the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. “By analyzing the lava flows we observed at two locations on the planet, we found that volcanic activity on Venus could be comparable to that on Earth.”
A comparison of radar maps from 1990 and 1992 suggests that huge rivers of lava flowed through the alien landscape during the two-year period, which later solidified into fresh rocky deposits that were up to 20 meters deep in places.
“We interpret these signals as flows along slopes or volcanic plains that can deviate around obstacles such as shield volcanoes as fluid,” said co-author Marco Mastrogiuseppe of Rome’s Sapienza University. “After ruling out other possibilities, we have confirmed that our best interpretation is that these are new lava flows.”
Scientists estimate that lava flows from these two regions covered a cumulative 19 square miles and solidified to form enough rock to fill 90,000 Olympic swimming pools in the two years between 1990 and 1992. These relatively newly transformed landscapes will provide a tempting target for scientists who manage instruments of NASA’s upcoming Venus Emissivity Radio Mastrogiuseppe (VERITAS) mission, which is scheduled to launch to explore Earth’s neighbor in the early 2030s.
“Our spacecraft will have a set of surface change identification approaches that are much more comprehensive and have higher resolution than the Magellan images,” explained VERITAS principal investigator Suzanne Smrekar. “Evidence of activity, even in the lower-resolution Magellan data, raises the potential for a revolution in our understanding of this mysterious world.”
For more science news, check out our coverage of Neuralink’s first human patient and how it uses a brain-computer interface to play video games.
Anthony is a freelance contributor who provides science and video game news for IGN. He has over eight years of experience covering groundbreaking developments in many scientific fields and has absolutely no time for your kinks. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
Image credit: NASA