Space and astronomy news
Start talking about Venus and immediately my mind goes to those images from the Venera space probes that visited Venus in the 1970’s. They revealed a world that had been scarred by millennia of volcanic activity yet as far as we could tell those volcanoes were dormant. That is, until just now. Magellan has been mapping the surface of Venus and between 1990 and 1992 had mapped 98% of the surface.
It’s not just the Venera probes that have been exploring Venus. In 1980, the Magellan spacecraft was launched by NASA to map the surface of the hottest planet in the Solar System. On arrival, it was put into a polar orbit and used radar to penetrate the thick clouds. Back in 2023, a study of some of the Magellan images from the synthetic aperture radar showed changes to a vent near the summit of Maat Mons.
In the latest study that was published in Nature Astronomy, more data from the synthetic aperture radar was studied. The team focussed on Sif Mons and Niobe Planitia and the data that had been collected from both areas in 1990 and again in 1992. The data revealed stronger radar returns in the later set of data suggesting new rock formations from volcanic activity.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Volcanoes on Venus might be erupting right nowSharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X skuthunur.
Read more »
Fresh Lava Flows on Venus Hint at Active VolcanoesScientists analyzed 30-year-old data and found that Venus's volcanic activity is comparable to Earth's.
Read more »
Orion's erupting star system reveals its secretsAn unusual group of stars in the Orion constellation have revealed their secrets. FU Orionis, a double star system, first caught astronomers' attention in 1936 when the central star suddenly became 1,000 times brighter than usual. This behavior, expected from dying stars, had never been seen in a young star like FU Orionis.
Read more »
Astronomers close in on the mystery of the erupting Orion star system (video)Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.
Read more »
A Tour of the Cascade Volcanoes from Space: British ColumbiaThis month we'll take a tour of the Cascade Range volcanoes, all located along the western edge of North America. Some will be very familiar but others are hidden gems (and dangers) of the Pacific Northwest.
Read more »
NASA Discovers Gravity-Squeezed World 'Exploding With Volcanoes''At optical wavelengths, you would be able to see a glowing, red-hot planet with a molten lava surface,' an astrophysicist said.
Read more »