Scientists have identified 37 volcanic structures on Venus - the closest to Earth - that appeared to have been active recently, and may still be active today. What paints a picture of a geologically active planet, not an idle world as it had long believed.
Researchers said, the day before yesterday, that the research focused on structures in the form of rings called wreaths, and show the result of the rise of a hot rock from the interior of the planet, and provided conclusive evidence of the spread of tectonic and fusion activity on the surface of Venus recently.
For a long time, many scientists believed that Venus, due to its lack of tectonic plates that gradually formed the shape of the Earth’s surface, was necessarily geologically dormant over the past half a billion years.
"The research shows that some of that internal heat is still able to reach the surface to this day," said Anna Gulcher, researcher in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Institute of Geological Physics in Zurich, and co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. It is clear that Venus is not a dead planet or is geologically inert as heavily as it once thought. Of the 133 episodes examined, 37 appeared to be active during 2-3 million years ago, a very short period in geological time. "In my opinion, many of these structures are active to this day," said Laurent Montsay of the University of Maryland and co-author of the study. And the planet Venus is covered with clouds of sulfuric acid and the heat on its surface is strong enough to melt lead.
The planet is not an idle world as it had long believed.