NASA scientists detect volcanic eruption on Venus through years-old images

A fresh analysis of a decades-old image of Venus has revealed that the planet has undergone significant volcanic activity. The image was captured when the Magellan spacecraft of NASA carefully observed Maat Mons, a massive shield volcano on Venus, between 1990 and 1992, according to NASA's official website. 

Two images taken about 243 Earth days apart displayed a difference in the size of the volcanic vent. It was observed that the vent expanded from 2.2 square kilometers to 4 square kilometers in size, indicating that a full-blown eruption took place on the planet. The latest findings were revealed at the Science and at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas on March 15. “This world is not quiet, not quiescent, not dead,” said Washington University's planetary scientist Paul Byrne.

While scientists thought that Venus would have active volcanoes, they were unable to back their speculation with proof, until now. In the past, only circumstantial evidence pointed to the idea of volcanic eruptions on Venus. However, experts realised that it was difficult to know for sure as many sightings were only a mirage due to different viewing angles of Magellan.

“We’ve just never had something we can point to. And now we do,” Byrne said, adding that he is almost certain that volcanic activity continues to take place on Venus. “There’s no way you have a planet that big that was doing something 30 years ago and stopped. It’s definitely still active today," he said.

Decades-old images to help NASA's future missions

Recalling how the discovery was made, planetary scientist Robert Herrick said it "was a needle-in-a-haystack search with no guarantee that the needle exists." Studies conducted by scientists revealed that the volcanic eruption, no matter how big, was not explosive but rather a slow one, much like the eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in 2018.

The latest findings are exciting for space explorers, as they will help set the stage for NASA's future missions, including VERITAS. “The cool part is it means that Venus is volcanically active now. In these upcoming missions, we are going to see things happening. We already had plans to try and look for new things and changes with time in both of those missions … we now know that that’s a valuable thing to do," Herrick concluded.