Researchers Discover Active Volcano on Venus: Showing the Planet Is Alvie

The researchers discovered Venus by analyzing 30 years old images of the Magellan spacecraft between 1990 and 1992.

The Magellan mission completed in 1994 was the first to capture the whole surface of Venus from space, and this recent discovery is the real success of the mission.

The captured images reflect a volcanic eruption that happened years before, making the planet alive. This research finding answers all old questions of whether volcanoes are still active on the surface of the rocky, hot planet Venus.

It will become the third planet in the solar system after Jupiter and Earth to have active magma volcanoes if the volcanic activity occurs due to surface alteration visible in the photographs (as opposed to mud volcanoes).

The lead author behind this discovery is planetary scientist Robert Herrick of the University of Alaska, who spent years carefully going through the countless radar images of Venus taken by Magellan.

Finally, an image showed a caldera, a significant depression created by a volcanic eruption and collapses. The Venus volcano, Called Maat Mons, is taller than Mount Everest.

Now Space agencies have become interested in exploring Venus. A few announced three projects to visit the planet within the next ten years, including the NASA mission VERITAS, the European Space Agency EnVision mission, and the DAVINCI+ mission.