Venus is similar to Earth in such things as size, mass, and density, so it is also capable to generate heat like earth. The main source of heat on Earth is volcanos. Nearly 50 volcanoes erupt every year.
And this volcano erupts never seen yet on Venus. Geophysicist Robert Herrick of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, said at the Lunar & Planetary Science Conference in Houston about a plant having volcanoes.
He did not point out Venus directly because of an unbroken cloud full atmosphere having a 45-65 km visible light. Through the cloud, you can see with the help of radar from space. With the help of the aperture synthesis technique, an image of the surface is prepared.
The image is black and white two areas consists. You can say a white or brighter area is rough and dark or a black area is a smoother surface.
This technique was also used by the NASA Magellan probe Venus orbited from 1990 to 1994 to prepare a surface with the help of radar from hundred meters above. From that, it was proved that nearly 80% area is covered with lava, but it was not clear when the latest volcano erupted.
“NASA’s selection of the VERITAS mission inspired me to look for recent volcanic activity in Magellan data,” said Robert Herrick.
“I didn’t really expect to be successful, but after about 200 hours of manually comparing the images of different Magellan orbits, I saw two images of the same region taken eight months apart exhibiting telltale geological changes caused by an eruption.”
Several symptoms state that rocks are not affected by freshly erupted lava. Presentence of sulfur dioxide also clears volcanic eruptions. With this new study, while taking ours to study both images show a difference in the surface.
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It may be tricky to use radar to see that changes in surface but researchers verify this. In 1991 February image and October images of the same are also showing a different surface. While a 1.5 km circular volcano area made doubled in size, which is because of eruption and filled with lava in October.
Because of this research scientists start talking that Venus may be active volcanically. Not its attracting how and where the eruption takes place on the planet. And more interesting is to find change in the surface from a 30-year-old photograph.
“Only a couple of the simulations matched the imagery, and the most likely scenario is that volcanic activity occurred on Venus’ surface during Magellan’s mission,” said Hensley. “While this is just one data point for an entire planet, it confirms there is modern geological activity.” (according to the times of India)
Research about volcanism is one of the purposes of NASA Veritas and Esa’s EnVision. EnVision decided to send its orbit about Venus in 2034. Originally Veritas also wanted to come forward but their schedule was delayed for unknown reasons. NASA JPL confirms it by the tweet below:
For the first time, scientists have observed direct geological evidence of an active volcano on Venus. 🌋
The @UAFGI and JPL team made the discovery after scouring archival radar images taken by @NASA’s Magellan mission more than 30 years ago. https://t.co/CTYYBFzAJl pic.twitter.com/v4vlx0aMiM
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) March 15, 2023
We are excited to get updates about Venus and the other planets. We will update you as we get another research regarding volcanoes and Venus. To know more news about space research follow us on our Twitter handle.