Is Venus still volcanically active?

Venus: Is Our “Sister Planet” Still a Fireball?

For years, Venus has been the solar system’s big tease – Earth’s so-called “sister planet,” perpetually hidden behind a thick, swirling veil of clouds. We’ve always wondered what secrets that cloudy exterior hides. Well, get this: recent discoveries are turning everything we thought we knew about Venus on its head. Forget a dormant, geologically dead world. It turns out Venus might be just as volcanically active as Earth, maybe even more so!

A Volcanic Past – Or a Fiery Present?

You know, Venus makes Earth look like it has a mild case of acne. Venus boasts more volcanoes than any other planet in our solar system – we’re talking over 80,000! And get this: about 65% of the planet is covered in vast lava plains. That tells you volcanism has really shaped the landscape. But for a long time, the big question was: were these volcanoes just relics of a bygone era, or were they still rumbling beneath the surface? The relatively low number of impact craters hinted at something interesting – a comparatively recent resurfacing, most likely from massive volcanic flows.

Magellan’s Flash of Insight

Back in the early 90s, NASA’s Magellan mission gave us our best look yet, mapping almost the entire surface of Venus with radar. Fast forward to 2023, and some scientists decided to take another look at that old Magellan data. And boom! They found something amazing: actual, direct geological evidence of recent volcanic activity. It turns out a volcanic vent near the Maat Mons volcano had changed dramatically in just eight months back in 1991. The thing practically doubled in size, and it looked like it was filled with a lava lake, with fresh lava oozing down the sides. Talk about a “eureka!” moment.

More Eruptions Caught on Camera (Sort Of)

But wait, there’s more! Building on that 2023 discovery, other scientists dug even deeper into the Magellan data. And guess what they found? More evidence of active volcanism! In May 2024, they announced they’d spotted surface changes indicating brand new rock formed from lava flows. These flows came from volcanoes that erupted while Magellan was still orbiting the planet. Two volcanoes erupted in the early 1990s. Davide Sulcanese, who led the study, even suggested that Venus’s volcanic activity could be on par with Earth’s. The study, published in Nature Astronomy, identified lava flows in two different regions of Venus, the western flank of Sif Mons and western Niobe Planitia .

Coronae and Sulfur Dioxide: More Clues to the Puzzle

And the evidence doesn’t stop there. Scientists have also been studying these weird ring-like structures called coronae, which are formed by plumes of hot stuff rising from deep inside Venus. A 2020 study pinpointed 37 of these coronae that appear to be recently active. Plus, we’ve seen some strange fluctuations in the amount of sulfur dioxide in Venus’s upper atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide is a major component of volcanic gases, so that’s another big hint that something’s cooking down below.

Future Missions: Heading Back to Venus

All these discoveries have really lit a fire under the scientific community. We’re finally getting serious about going back to Venus to unravel its secrets. NASA’s VERITAS mission, scheduled to launch within the next decade, will study Venus from its surface all the way down to its core. The goal? To figure out why Venus and Earth evolved so differently. VERITAS will have much better equipment to spot surface changes than Magellan did. And the European Space Agency’s EnVision mission, launching in 2032, will also help us understand Venus’s geology.

Akatsuki: The Japanese Mission

The Japanese Akatsuki (“dawn”) mission, also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, has been studying Venus’s atmosphere since 2015 . While its primary focus is on atmospheric dynamics, Akatsuki also aims to search for signs of active volcanism using its infrared cameras . Though contact with the spacecraft was lost in late April 2024, it provided valuable data during its operational period .

Venus: A World Transformed

The Venus we thought we knew – a hot, dead rock – is gone. The new Venus is a dynamic, geologically active world, and that changes everything. Understanding its volcanism could give us huge insights into how planets evolve and what makes a planet habitable. As Suzanne Smrekar put it, this new evidence “supercharges the potential to revolutionize our understanding of this enigmatic world.” And honestly, who wouldn’t want to explore a potentially active volcano on another planet? Sign me up!