Active Geology on Venus

Credits for VS Library:

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 

Video imagery:

·       Illustration, Quetzalpetlatl Corona on Venus: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin

·       Composite radar image, Quetzalpetlatl Corona on Venus: NASA/JPL-Caltech

·       Radar image, Aine corona on Venus: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Collaged images of celestial bodies scroll upward.

 

Text, News from the Universe. Active geology on Venus, Illustration, March 3, 2023. A vast red-orange landscape features an erupting volcano with a dense funnel of black smoke in the distance, and a diffused orange sun behind it.

 

Text, A fresh look at archival data supports theories that Venus provides an example of what Earth may have been like 2.5 billion years ago.

 

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A black and white image shows a gray swirling mass. Text, Quetzalpetlatl Corona. Scientists went back to data collected by NASA's Magellan mission in the early 1990s to study quasi-circular geological features called coronae.

 

The study estimates the planet's outermost rocky shell around each corona is 7 miles (11 kilometers) thick - much thinner than previous studies suggested.

 

Another black and white image shows an aerial view of round geological formations. Text, Aine Corona. These regions have an estimated heat flow that is greater than Earth's average, suggesting that coronae are geologically active.

 

NASA's upcoming VERITAS mission will pick up where Magellan left off, producing 3D global maps and spectra that reveal the content of Venus's surface.

 

This news was brought to you in part by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.