A fresh analysis of radar images obtained more than three decades ago has yielded new evidence indicating Venus, Earth's planetary next-door neighbor, is currently volcanically active - a dynamic world with eruptions and lava flows.
"Our interpretation is that there is a new influx of magma into a chamber underneath the vent, and that results in formation of a broader, irregular caldera that still has an active lava lake in it when the second image is taken," Herrick said.
"Although it is possible the vent collapse was not associated with active volcanism, on Earth this large a collapse is usually associated with some sort of magmatic movement, and hence we think it likely to be the case here," said study co-author Scott Hensley, a senior research scientist specializing in radar remote sensing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
The new findings suggest there are eruptions on Venus about every few months, similar to some Earth volcanoes in places like Hawaii, the Canary Islands and Iceland, Herrick said. In our solar system, Earth resides comfortably within the "habitable zone" around the sun - the distance considered not too close and not too far from a star to be able to host life, with Venus near the inner boundary and Mars close to the outer edge.
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