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Planetary scientists have found groundbreaking evidence of recent volcanic activity Venus. Archives of NASA Magellan (opens in new tab) Missions reveal telltale signs that Maat Mons, a 5-mile-tall (8-kilometer) volcano on Earth’s infernal twin, was active in 1991.
Magellan, launched in May 1989, was the first spacecraft to map the entire surface of Venus. The mission’s radar images showed that Venus is dotted with volcanoes, but at the time scientists couldn’t say if any of them were still active.
Now, a new analysis of these 30-year-old archives has uncovered a lava-swelling volcanic vent in the Atla Regio region near the planet’s equator.
The discovery was inspired by NASA’s next mission to our sister planet, which will launch within a decade. VERITAS (opens in new tab) (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography And Spectroscopy), led by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, will scan Venus from surface to core to understand how a rocky planet so similar to ours is , has become a searing hellhole.
“NASA’s selection for the VERITAS mission inspired me to search the Magellanic data for recent volcanic activity,” Robert Herrich (opens in new tab)a research professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a member of the VERITAS team that led the search for the archival data said in a opinion (opens in new tab). “I didn’t really expect to be successful, but after about 200 hours of manually comparing images from different Magellanic orbits, I saw two images of the same region taken eight months apart, showing telltale geological changes caused by an eruption were caused.”
Related: NASA captures stunning, one-of-a-kind images of Venus’ surface
Researchers described the two images in a study published in the journal on Wednesday (March 15). Science (opens in new tab). They also presented their results at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (opens in new tab) in The Woodlands, Texas on Wednesday.
Maat Mons is the tallest volcano on Venus, towering 26,250 feet (8,000 meters) above the barren volcanic plains and deformed terrain of the planet’s surface. In an image taken in February 1991, a volcanic vent associated with Maat Mons appears nearly circular, with evidence of drained lava on its outer slopes, and covers an area of ​​less than 2.2 square kilometers. In October, Magellan captured the same vent crowded with one Lake of bubbling lava; it was misshapen and had doubled.
But the orbiter photographed the vent from different orbits and with poor resolution, making it difficult for scientists to compare the images. However, they managed to align them manually and create computer models of the vents, which helped them determine what was causing the geological changes.
“Only a few of the simulations matched the images, and the most likely scenario is that volcanic activity took place on the surface of Venus during Magellan’s mission.” Scott Hensley (opens in new tab), a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on the Magellan radar mission, said in the statement. “Although this is only one data point for an entire planet, it confirms that there is modern geological activity.”
The lava flow from Maat Mons crater would have been similar in size to the Hawaiian eruption Kilauea Volcano in 2018, the researchers said in the statement.
This finding gives scientists a foretaste of the discoveries NASA’s upcoming mission is likely to unveil. VERITAS is the first spacecraft to return to Venus since the 1990s. His mission is to create 3D models of the planet to reveal its innermost secrets.
“Venus is an enigmatic world and Magellan has shown so many possibilities.” Jennifer Whitten (opens in new tab), an assistant professor at Tulane University in New Orleans and a member of the VERITAS team, said in the statement. “Now that we are very confident that the planet experienced a volcanic eruption just 30 years ago, this is a small preview of the incredible discoveries VERITAS will make.”
