Scientists have known that Venus is covered in volcanoes, but whether or not any of them is still active has been long debated
. Now, researchers have discovered that at least one of them probably is, by examining radar images of the planet’s surface collected by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft between 1990 and 1992. They determined that a volcanic vent located in Venus’s Atla Regio area, which contains two of the planet’s largest volcanoes, changed shape between two images taken eight months apart, suggesting an eruption or flow of magma beneath the vent.
Robert Herrick, a geophysicist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Scott Hensley, a radar scientist at JPL who is also part of the VERITAS team, analysed full-resolution radar images captured by Magellan of areas with suspected volcanic activity.The challenge was that Magellan imaged the planet in three different cycles over its 24-month mission. During each cycle, it pointed its radar at a different angle to Venus’s surface.
The low resolution of the Magellan images added another layer of complexity. “You’re looking at the surface, where a football field is a single pixel,” he adds. Herrick and Hensley acknowledge this limitation in their data. But they also say they are not aware of any equivalent volcanic event on Earth that could cause the changes they observed, though they cannot rule out the possibility that something else might have been responsible., including VERITAS, will provide the data needed to convince everyone.VERITAS, however, has been delayed — so King may be waiting longer than originally thought.
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