Active Volcanoes Revealed on Venus

Scientists have long suspected that volcanoes played a huge role in the evolution of cloud-shrouded Venus, the second planet from the sun.

Now, images from Europe's Venus Express orbiter are showing that volcanic eruptions may not just be a thing from the past.

Scientists discovered transient bright spots in a relatively young rift zone known as Ganiki Chasma, which was observed 36 times by the spacecraft's Venus Monitoring Camera.

"We constructed orbit-wise mosaics … and computed the maps of relative surface brightness," planetary scientist Eugene Shalygin, with the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, wrote in a synapsis of research to be presented on Monday at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston.

"Analyzing these maps one can see several bright features that are present at the same locations in several consequent orbits and disappear afterwards," Shalygin writes.

The scientists suspect the bright spots are caused by lava, lava gas or some combination of the two at or just above the planet's surface.

"We are searching for similar events in other rift zones," Shalygin added.

The scientists said that the discovery of present-day volcanic activity on Venus would have "major implications" for understanding processes in the planet's interior, surface and atmosphere.

More details about the research are expected after the scientists present their findings Monday afternoon.

Taken from Discovery News