Venus tagged posts

Scientists find evidence that Venus has Active Volcanoes

This figure shows the volcanic peak Idunn Mons (at 46 degrees south latitude, 214.5 degrees east longitude) in the Imdr Regio area of Venus. The colored overlay shows the heat patterns derived from surface brightness data collected by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS), aboard the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft. Image credit: NASA
This figure shows the volcanic peak Idunn Mons (at 46 degrees south latitude, 214.5 degrees east longitude) in the Imdr Regio area of Venus. The colored overlay shows the heat patterns derived from surface brightness data collected by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS), aboard the European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft. Image credit: NASA

New research led by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and published today in Science Advances shows that lava flows on Venus may be only a few years old, suggesting that Venus could be volcanically active today—making it the only planet in our solar system, other than Earth, with recent eruptions.

“If Venus is indeed active today, it would make a great place to visit to better understand the in...

Read More

Simulations Suggest Venus may have once been able to Support Life

Venus approaches the Sun in a 2012 transit visible from Earth. Credit: NASA

Venus approaches the Sun in a 2012 transit visible from Earth. Credit: NASA

A team of researchers with NASA, Uppsala University, Columbia University and the Planetary Science Institute has created several simulations of conditions on Venus billions of years ago using Earth climate models and has found some instances that suggest the planet may at one time have been capable of harboring life.

Venus is extraordinarily hot, volcanically active and has an atmosphere that is mostly carbon dioxide. But the simulations created by the research team suggest it may not have always been that way. They started with the idea that Venus and Earth were probably similar billions of years ago—a time when Earth’s atmosphere was also mostly carbon dioxide...

Read More

Lush Venus? Searing Earth? It could have happened

Rice University scientists propose that life in the solar system could have been very different - See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2016/07/05/lush-venus-searing-earth-it-could-have-happened-2/#sthash.pz2Lc0vd.dpuf

Rice University scientists propose that life in the solar system could have been very different – See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2016/07/05/lush-venus-searing-earth-it-could-have-happened-2/#sthash.pz2Lc0vd.dpuf

Life in the solar system could have been very different. If conditions had been just a little different an eon ago, there might be plentiful life on Venus and none on Earth. The idea isn’t so far-fetched, according to a hypothesis by Rice University scientists who published their thoughts on life-sustaining planets, the planets’ histories and the possibility of finding more...

Read More