Ask the expert
Was this discovery unexpected?
This is big. We’ve long suspected that Venus is volcanically active, but we’ve not had any direct evidence of such activity – until now. I think it’s fair to say that this finding isn’t unexpected. This kind of collapse/eruption takes place on Earth regularly, at least geologically speaking. And Venus has lots and lots and lots and LOTS of volcanic landforms – volcanoes, calderas, vents – and flows. But it’s one thing to expect something
and quite another to then actually see it.
Does this discovery mean we are more likely to find volcanic activity on other planets or moons?
This finding doesn’t have any bearing on finding active volcanism on any other body. What it does do is make it very likely that we’ll see more evidence for ongoing volcanic activity elsewhere on Venus, either by continuing to look through the Magellan data, or with the new radar data we’ll get from the VERITAS and EnVision missions in the 2030s.
What other research is ongoing in this area?
Right now, I expect that people are starting to look at maps of Venus themselves to see if they can spot additional evidence for changes in Magellan data. There’s other work to calculate how volcanic activity works on Venus, along with modelling to figure out what we might see with the higherresolution data we’ll get from those future missions. What can we expect to discover in the future? Going forward, we’re going to learn a lot more about how active Venus is – not just volcanically, but also tectonically, and in terms of wind-blown erosion, landslides, you know it. There has long been a view that Venus isn’t all that active a place, even though it’s almost the same size as Earth, which is a very active world. This new view of an active Venus is becoming more and more prevalent, and this new paper has definitely moved the needle in that direction in a huge way. PROF PAUL BYRNE Paul is an associate professor of earth and planetary science at Washington University in St Louis. His research focuses on what makes planets behave and look the way they do. He uses remotely sensed data, fieldwork here on Earth, and numerical and physical models to build a better understanding of our planet and alien worlds.