According to a new analysis of decades-old radar images, Venus appears to be more volcanically active than previously known.
- Scientists have spotted evidence of eruptions at two additional sites on the surface of Earth’s inhospitable planetary neighbour.
- Radar images obtained by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft from 1990 to 1992 indicated large lava flows at these two locations in the Venusian northern hemisphere at the time of the observations.
- One of the two sites is a volcano called Sif Mons, which is about 200 miles (300 km) wide and situated in a region called Eistla Regio.
- The other site is a large volcanic plain in a region called Niobe Planitia. About 17 square miles (45 square kilometers) of rock was produced in this lava flow.
- Venus is the second planet from the sun, and Earth the third. Venus has a diameter of about 7,500 miles (12,000 km), slightly smaller than Earth.
- The new study builds on previous findings of ongoing Venusian volcanic activity.
- A 2023 study found that a volcanic vent on Maat Mons in a region called Atla Regio, near the equator, expanded and changed shape during the Magellan mission.
