Surfing on Venus? It could have happened, scientists say. 0
Oceans once bathed Venus, and continents once shifted on its surface, suggests a spacecraft map released Tuesday. Today, Venus endures 800-degree temperatures and sulfuric acid rains. But a Venus Express spacecraft map of the planet’s surface released by European Space Agency scientists suggests granite covers its southern highlands, which means that the weather there was once balmier.
“If there is granite on Venus, there must have been an ocean and plate tectonics in the past,” says study chief Nils Müller of the University Münster and DLR Berlin, in a statement. In a Journal of Geophysical Research report, the study team suggests that heat signatures given off by the nighttime surface on southern Venus confirm the granite finding. Granite only forms on Earth when volcanic rocks are pulled beneath ocean floors by continental drift, and then return to the surface.
Such a process may have happened on Venus, before its atmosphere heated to its current temperatures. “This is not proof, but it is consistent. All we can really say at the moment is that the plateau rocks look different from elsewhere,” adds Müller. The team suggests future Venus landers aim for the granite regions to confirm the finding.
subscribe to comments RSS
Comments are closed