A recent piece of research adds to the increasing body of evidence suggesting Venus is volcanically active – a discovery that, if confirmed, will provide light on how volcanoes affect planetary development and livability throughout the universe. The study, which concentrates on odd signals emanating from a Venusian volcano known as Idunn Mons, is stoking interest in future trips to the planet’s closest neighbor that will finally decide the question.
Venus has been known for a long time to be coated in bizarre volcanoes. However, given Venus’s dense and murky atmosphere obfuscates whatever may be occurring on the surface, it is hard to know if they are still pouring lava nowadays.
A group of researchers is now claiming that the 1.5-mile tall, 125-mile broad Idunn Mons has indeed been volcanic in the last 1000 years, and is probably continuing erupting today, based on archive views from ancient orbiter operations and the findings of experimental work undertaken on Earth. They won’t need to await much to get confirmation of their suspicions: a small squadron of spacecraft able to identify volcanism on Venus will launch in the following decade.
Even so, verifying that notion would have far-reaching consequences. Venus previously possessed an ocean’s supply of water, but it’s now a barren desert with a thick, acid-laden atmosphere and a soil burning hot. Massive volcanic eruptions, which triggered irreversible climatic change, are one of the primary explanations for Venus’s hellish transition. Understanding why Earth has not (yet) experienced a comparable eruptive catastrophe would help us better comprehend Venus’s volcanoes. While dead volcanoes may provide some insight, volcanoes are far easier to grasp when they are observed in activity.
“I think we’re going to be writing brand new textbooks about Venus once all of these missions get there. It’s going to change how we think about planetary evolution,” declared Justin Filiberto, from Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science.
