What can 30-year-old data teach scientists about Venus’ geological activity? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated potentially active geologic activity on Venus based on data from the Magellan spacecraft, which studied Venus in the 1990s. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the current geological activity of Venus and how future missions could help further unravel these mysteries.
For the study, the researchers used data from NASA’s long-retired Magellan spacecraft to analyze images of coronae, which are surface features hypothesized to form from hotspots within a planetary body’s mantle. Along with better understanding Venus’ present geological activity, coronae could also help scientists better understand Earth’s geological history, including its tectonic activity.
Using 3D models, the team attempted to ascertain how gravity plays a role in coronae formation to complement the topography, with the latter being the longstanding method for studying coronae. In the end, the team identified gravity buoyancy beneath 52 of the 75 coronae they studied, opening doors for new methods in studying coronae.
“Coronae are abundant on Venus,” said Dr. Anna Gülcher, who is an Earth and planetary scientist at the University of Bern and a co-author on the study. “They are very large features, and people have proposed different theories over the years as to how they formed. The most exciting thing for our study is that we can now say there are most likely various and ongoing active processes driving their formation. We believe these same processes may have occurred early in Earth’s history.”
This study comes as NASA is preparing to send its VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) orbiter mission to Venus in the 2030s with the goal of mapping Venus’ surface in high resolution, this revealing new details about this intriguing world that is literally shrouded in mystery.
What new discoveries will scientists make about Venus’ geological activity in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Science Advances, NASA JPL
Featured Image: Artist's illustration of coronae activity on Venus. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin)