How volcanically active the neighboring planet is, it was not exactly known until now. However, a careful study of archival data allowed us to notice the eruption of the largest Venusian volcano, which accidentally fell "into the lens" of the space probe.
Venus is surrounded by a thick and turbulent atmosphere containing sulfuric acid and heated to extreme temperatures. This makes its surface completely unsuitable for life. However, the planet itself may still be "alive. Despite the fact that there are no moving tectonic plates in its crust, Venusian volcanoes continue to erupt.
In recent years, more and more evidence for this activity has been found, and recently, scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks found direct evidence of volcanism on the neighboring planet. This makes Venus the third body in the solar system (after Earth and Jupiter's moon Io) with magma-spewing volcanoes. This is reported in an article published in the journal Science.
Professor Robert Herrick (Robert Herrick) and his team used archival data collected by the probe Magellan, which explored Venus about 30 years ago. The main attention of scientists was focused on Mount Maat, which is considered the largest volcano on the planet.
Magellan radar surveyed the slopes of Maat in February and October 1991, eight months apart. After examining the images, geologists found that the caldera, the volcano's basin, had grown markedly in that period, from a rounded shape of about 2.2 square kilometers to an irregular shape of more than 3.9 square kilometers.
Such processes are familiar to geologists from the Earth: the exhaustion of the magma supporting the edges of the basin causes the walls to collapse and the caldera to grow in size. In addition, Magellan has fixed an anomaly - an area of slightly reduced gravity directly above Maat. The presence of fresh lava was also indicated by observations in the microwave range of electromagnetic waves.
The fact that the eruption was noticed in a relatively short period of the space probe may be a great stroke of luck or evidence of the continued high activity of volcanoes on the neighboring planet. It seems that the interior of Venus continues to heat up due to the slow decay of radioactive elements. The resulting heat finds its way to the surface, despite the absence of plate tectonics.