Scientists have long suspected that volcanoes played a huge role in the evolution shrouded in the clouds of Venus, the second planet from the Sun.
Now, photos taken with the Venus Express orbiter show that volcanic eruptions on Venus cannot be just a legend from the past.
Scientists have discovered fleeting white patches of clouds against the backdrop of a young rift zone known as Ganiki Chasma, for which Venus Express has been watching for a long time.
This digital image models the Idunn Mons volcanic peak in the Imdr Regio region on Venus.
“We created an orbital mosaic and compared it to a relatively bright surface,” says astronomer Yevgeny Shalygin from the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany. “Analyzing these maps, one can see several bright features that are present in certain places in several successive frames and then disappear,” writes Shalygin.
Scientists suspect that bright spots are caused by lava or lava gases.
“We are looking for similar processes in other rift zones,” added Shalygin.
Scientists have said that the discovery of modern volcanic activity on Venus will have "serious consequences" for understanding the processes in the interior of the planet, the surface and the atmosphere.
